45 



THE WHEATEAR. 



Saxicola cenanthe (L.). 



A few stragglers of this species appeared simultaneously 

 on the 23rd of March in Kent, Bedford, Staffordshire 

 and Merioneth. Small numbers arrived in Hampshire on 

 the 25th and must have continued their journey northwards, 

 as during the two succeeding days they were recorded from 

 Yorkshire, Cheshire and Westmoreland. The first arrival 

 of Wheatears in large numbers was noted in the Isle of 

 Wight and in Kent on the 29th and 30th, and these birds 

 appear to have remained for a day or so in the southern 

 counties. 



The second wave arrived at the Isle of Wight, Dorset 

 and Kent on the 2nd and 3rd of April. These birds passed 

 onwards, some reaching Yorkshire and Westmoreland by 

 the 4th, whilst others seem to have left the country by the 

 east side, notably some that arrived in Kent on the 6th. 

 During the three following days records were very scanty, 

 but on the 10th a considerable immigration took place in 

 Cornwall and Devon, its eastern wing reaching as far as 

 Hampshire. On the 11th the birds were still arriving 

 in Hampshire and Sussex, but the westernmost records 

 showed a decrease. On the 13th they were still arriving 

 in Kent. We may point out that the Wheatear is one of 

 the species in which the western flank of the migrating 

 column seems always to travel a day or two in advance 

 of the eastern, so that we often receive the Cornish records 

 a day before those from Hampshire ; while the latter 

 are slightly in advance of those from Kent. Between the 

 15th and 16th they were still arriving in the south, whence 



