BIRDS 91 



about the broken edges of the salt marshes. It is a little sur- 

 prising that the Wheatear does not breed on our salt marshes, 

 since the broken turfs above the water-line afford many suit- 

 able niches for its nest, while food, in the shape of small beetles, 

 is undoubtedly plentiful. But though the Wheatear crosses 

 many portions of our area, as from Grange to Kendal, it does not 

 usually breed on the sea-level, except on Walney Island and else- 

 where along our open coast, as at Eavenglass and among the 

 sand-hills and turf-covered banks near Silloth. The birds that 

 breed inland may often be seen in early spring on ploughed lands, 

 but they soon go up into the high grounds, breeding commonly 

 throughout the more elevated portions of our faunal area. 



There can be no doubt that this bird is just as characteristic 

 of the bleakest fells as of the golden sands that break the force 

 of our south-westerly gales ; the pale blue eggs are equally 

 familiar to the long-line fisherman, and to the shepherd in the 

 most remote dales of Westmorland. Everywhere the Wheatear 

 exhibits the same characteristics, always a bright joyous bird, at 

 one moment carolling blithely on the wing with fond half- 

 hovering flight, at the next balancing its slight form on some 

 conspicuous vantage-point, or chasing away a rival in mock anger 

 from its nest. 



When crossing Melmerby Fell one summer day we stumbled 

 across a little colony of breeding Wheatears. They were 

 evidently nesting in the holes which the rabbits had excavated 

 in a light sandy soil ; but, curiously enough, these birds persis- 

 tently perched on the tops of some tall hawthorn bushes, though 

 stone walls, such as they usually affect, were quite as near. In 

 autumn the migrating birds occasionally rest on telegraph-wires. 

 An individual which haunted the Willow Holme for ten days in 

 September 1888 constantly perched on the hedgetops. The 

 autumnal movements of this Chat chiefly affect us in the months 

 of August and September, when many birds appear in the fields 

 and on the salt marshes, as well as on the open coast. This 

 autumn (1891), I found quite a score of Wheatears flitting about 

 the beach on the north-west side of Walney Island on October 

 20th. It is a trifle unusual to see more than a single straggler 

 when the season is so far advanced. 



