40 
SYLVIAD.E. 
one or two only in company, but in the above instance they 
evidently seemed to come in a body, since we have con¬ 
stantly looked for their arrival each day, even preceding 
the 21st, and none were to be found in their usual haunts.” 
Montagu appears also to have entertained the same opinion, 
and he thus describes the arrival of a party from their passage 
across the Channel: “ On the 24th of March, 1804, a vast 
number of these birds made their first appearance on the 
south coast of Devon, near Kingsbridge, in a low, sheltered 
situation, and continued in flock the whole of the day, busied 
in search of food: the flock consisted entirely of males, 
without a single female among them. For some time the 
wind had been fluctuating, and the weather cold, attended 
with hail and snow, for a day or two proceeding their ap¬ 
pearance ; and a strong gale of wind from the east obliged 
these birds to make a landing so much farther to the west¬ 
ward than usual in such numbers. The Wheat-ear is by 
no means common in Devonshire or Cornwall in the breeding- 
season, and never plentiful in either during the migrative 
seasons, but is most frequently observed on the fallow lands 
in the autumn.” 
In allusion to the peculiar localities chosen by this species, 
the friend before quoted says, “ Wheat-ears are found par¬ 
tially dispersed on many parts of our heaths, but one spot in 
particular seems selected as them most chosen resort. This, 
their favourite valley, consists of a smooth grassy slope, the 
ground beyond rising abruptly in the opposite direction ; it is 
much frequented by rabbits, and abounding with their bur¬ 
rows, so as to afford every facility for the convenience and 
peculiar mode of nesting adopted by these birds.” 
“ The nest of this species is constructed of moss and grass, 
intermixed with wool, and lined with that material, or rather, 
if it can be obtained, with hair. The eggs weigh about forty 
grains.” The nest is usually constructed in the recesses of a 
rabbit’s burrow, or in a crevice among the rocks, and is often 
