42 
SYLVIAD.E, 
The Wlieat-ear is known in most countries of Europe, 
from the coasts of the Mediterranean to the arctic circle, 
but is most common in the temperate parts. Barren and 
uncultivated districts appear to attach these birds most; also 
open downs near the sea, on which latter account they are 
very abundant in Holland. 
This species confines itself entirely to insect food, such 
as the many species of flies that abound on dry and heathy 
wastes, also grasshoppers, beetles, the larvae of insects, etc. 
These lively birds may be kept in confinement if care is 
taken to supply them as much as possible with insects, but 
in default of these, bread and milk, bruised hempseed, and 
raw meat have been found to answer the purpose. They 
require in other respects the same warmth and treatment as 
the niofhtino’ale. 
The entire length of the Wheat-ear is six and a half 
inches : the wing measures three inches and a half, beyond 
which the tail extends about nine lines. The tarsus is an 
inch long, black, slender, and covered from the ankle to the 
feathered tibia with one plate, not divided into scales. The 
middle toe is nine lines, the side-toes little more than half 
that length, the outer one united half-way down to the 
middle toe ; the claws are black, very slender and sharp ; 
the tail measures two inches ; the beak is five and a half 
lines from the forehead to the tip, and nine lines from the 
tip to the gape. The beak of this species is intermediate 
in form between the stoutness of the thrushes and the 
slenderness of the warblers ; the upper mandible is slightly 
notched, much compressed towards the tip, and somewhat 
widened at the base, resembling the Muscicapidae, and is, 
like them, furnished with a few stout bristles near the gape, 
and has a strong prominent ridge running along the upper 
mandible, and advancing upon the forehead. The wing 
has the first qnill-feather about half an inch in length, the 
