192 



Scotland, my friend Mr. J. A. Harvie Brown writes to me as follows : — " It is scarcely necessary 



to particularize the distribution throughout Scotland of so common a species as the Wheatear, 



further than to remark that it is especially partial to limestone districts. This fact was taken 



notice of by Mr. Selby so long ago as 1834, when he wrote of this bird in Sutherland (Edinb. 



New Phil. Journ. vol. xxxii. p. 286) ' generally distributed over the county, but I think most 



abundant in limestone districts.' To this we may add that in that county, at all events, the 



Wheatear is seldom found to ascend the mountains in the breeding-season above the line where 



the limestone ends and the granitic rocks begin. On one occasion only in Sutherland we found 



a pair of Wheatears breeding, at an elevation of 2700 feet, amongst granite boulders, on the 



summit of a mountain in Assynt. In other parts of Scotland we have found them at considerably 



higher elevations — but only rarely, where limestone existed in any quantities, lower down : or, in 



other words, the superior attractions which the limestone rock seems to offer apparently localizes 



the distribution of the species in many parts of Scotland to a very appreciable degree ; and we 



are borne out in these remarks by Mr. Robert Gray, who tells us that he has observed the same 



fact in other parts of Scotland." In Greenland it has been frequently observed, and breeds there. 



Sir J. C. Ross observed one on the 2nd May, 1830, as far north as 70° N. lat., in Felix Harbour. 



In Iceland and the Faeroes it is a common summer visitant, and breeds there in some abundance. 



Captain Feilden speaks of it as being " abundant throughout the Faeroes as a breeding species, 



arriving in the middle of April and leaving in August. Its cheery presence and pleasing song 



enlivens the rugged hill-sides and cheerless tracts of stone over which the traveller by land in 



Faeroe pursues his track. I have found it nesting not far from the shore, and at every elevation 



except on the bare tops of the highest mountains. The nest is usually placed under a stone ; and 



in several instances I detected it by noticing the worn track which the bird had made in passing 



and repassing to the nest. I have taken nests with six and seven eggs in them, and have had 



them brought to me with eight." In Scandinavia it is a common summer resident, being found 



up into Lapland. Mr. R. Collett says that it is met with everywhere in Norway, from Lindesnaes 



to the North Cape, and on the coast as well as in the fells up to the edge of the snow-region ; 



and it is also met with throughout Sweden, from the extreme south far up into Lapland. I 



found it common during the summer in every part of Finland I visited, and Mr. Meves says that 



it is equally numerous in Northern Russia ; but Mr. Sabanaeff writes to me that it is not so very 



common in Central Russia; he met with it in the Government of Perm, where it was less 



numerous than the Whinchat. It is numerous throughout Poland and the Baltic Provinces, in 



suitable localities; and Borggreve says (Vogelf. N. Deutschl. p. 98) that it is found during the 



summer throughout North Germany ; he himself never observed it in the mountains, where, 



according to Gloger, it occurs at high altitudes. Mr. von Homeyer, however (J. f. O. 1870, 



p. 227), fully confirms Gloger's statement as to its occurrence in the mountains. It is, however, 



as elsewhere, somewhat locally distributed as a breeding species ; and I may name that Mr. Sachse 



informs me that at Altenkirchen, in Rhenish Prussia, he only found three nests during the last 



twenty years. It arrives there, he says, about the middle of April, and leaves early in September; 



and Dr. E. Rey informs me that it arrives at Halle, in Saxony, between the 22nd of March and 



the 2nd of April. In Denmark, Belgium, and Holland it is common ; and Baron von Droste 



HiilshofT says that it is common on the island of Borkum, and breeds there. In France it is 



