AXB NEIGHBOURHOOD. 115 



certain parts of the Peak of Derbyshire, where, with 

 the exception of a few Peewits, an occasional Meadow- 

 Pipit, and rarely a Kestrel, the present species seems 

 to be the only feathered inhabitant, flitting from 

 stone to stone, or along miles of wall, in front of the 

 traveller, with a low wailing note, and occasionally 

 darting down to pick some insect from the road. 

 The nest of the Wheatear is generally placed in the 

 crevice of a stone wall, or a crack or hole in a stone- 

 quarry, sometimes under a large rock or boulder, 

 and very often, as Morton tells us, in an old rabbit- 

 burrow ; it is a large, loosely built structure, usually 

 of rough grass and hair, but varies according to its 

 locality, a good deal of wool and moss occasionally 

 entering into its composition. The eggs, generally 

 five or six, are of a very pale blue, for the most part 

 spotless, but now and then marked with a few rusty- 

 red spots. The Wheatear has a low soft song, plea- 

 santly varied, but only audible at a short distance. 

 Both parent birds become very much excited at the 

 approach of an intruder when their young have left 

 the nest, and I have seen them attack a terrier dog 

 in these circumstances with great determination. I 

 have met with the Wheatear in every part of Europe 

 that I have visited, but, as a rule, I think it does not 

 breed in the countries that border the Mediterranean. 

 The curious complete change of plumage in this 

 species at the annual moult which takes place in 

 August has led to some confusion in the discrimina- 

 tion of the sexes and the age of the birds. It may 

 be briefly and roughly described as a general change 

 from a fine blue-grey to a light rufous, and is eflected 

 by a true moult, or shifting of the old feathers for 

 new, and not by an alteration in colour of the original 



l2 



