196 



10 



the bird is fluttering in the air at no great altitude, or when seated on a stone or any elevated 

 perch. It feeds, like its allies, entirely on insects of various descriptions, worms, small coleoptera, 

 mollusca, &c. &c. 



The flesh of the Wheatear being very delicate and tasty, large numbers are annually caught 

 in the south of England and sold for the table, the shepherds being those who chiefly catch 

 them, which they do by snares set for them under sods, cut and placed so as to form a hollow 

 chamber with two openings, into which the bird runs upon the least alarm. These traps are set 

 on the downs over which the flocks graze ; and Professor Newton (Yarr. Brit. Birds, p. 350) says 

 " one man and his lad can look after from five to seven hundred of them. They are opened 

 every year about St. James's day, July 25th, and are all in operation about August 1st. The 

 birds arrive by hundreds, though not in flocks, in daily succession for the next six or seven 

 weeks, probably depending on the distance northward at which they have been reared. The 

 season for catching is concluded about the end of the third week in September, after which very 

 few birds are observed to pass. Pennant, more than a century since, stated that the numbers 

 snared about Eastbourne amounted annually to about 1840 dozens, which were usually sold for 

 sixpence the dozen; and Markwick, in 1798, recorded his having been told that, in two August 

 days of 1792, his informant, a shepherd, had taken there twenty-seven dozens; but this is a 

 small number compared with the almost incredible quantity sometimes taken, for another person 

 told the same naturalist of a shepherd who once caught eighty-four dozens in one day." Of 

 latter years, however, but comparatively few are caught, owing probably to the fact that large 

 tracts of open common and partly waste land have been broken up and brought under tillage, so 

 that the birds can no longer breed there ; and the supply being so much curtailed they are now 

 worth from three to four shillings a dozen. 



The present species commences nidification with us in England from the middle to the end 

 of April, and places its nest amongst any heap of stones, in a suitable cranny or crevice of a 

 stone wall, in an old rabbit-burrow, or any hole in the ground, or merely under shelter of a clod 

 or stone. Its nest is rather large, somewhat loosely constructed, and flat, and is built of dried 

 grasses, moss, rootlets, &c, and lined with moss, feathers, hair, and wool. I frequently found 

 the nests in Finland, and invariably found them in old stone-walls, most difficult to get at. In 

 some localities they are said to breed in hollow trees ; but I have never seen a nest thus placed. 

 The eggs, from five to seven, or sometimes eight, in number, are pale blue, with a faint greenish 

 tinge, usually unspotted, but sometimes marked with red dots. Dr. E. liey informs me that he 

 generally finds about ten per cent, thus marked. In shape they are oval, somewhat elongated, 

 and tapering towards one end, and measure from f-§ by f § to f§ by ff inch. 



The specimens figured are a male in full breeding-plumage, and very pure in colour, from 

 Sweden, an adult female from Nubia, and in the background an adult male, in autumn dress, 

 from Turkey, all being in my own collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



