126 RUSSET WHEATEAR. 



About March, says Count Miilile, .after every fresh 

 stornij bands of new arrivals of S. stapazina may be 

 observed in Greece. They soon scatter themselves 

 among the rocky hills, where they move about restlessly 

 among Emheriza ccBsia, Surnia noct-ua, and Turdus 

 cycmus. They always seem angry without there being 

 any cause of alarm, and are constantly snapping and 

 pecking one another, although they live at peace with 

 other birds. 



They are very shy and circumspect, and build their 

 nests in the holes of rocks, singly. The nest is made 

 of blades of grass and the down of grass flowers, and 

 generally contains five eggs, sea-green, sprinkled spa- 

 ringly with pale-coloured spots. 



Of twenty-seven eggs examined by Moquin-Tandon, 

 from the neighbourhood of Gignac, twenty were of a 

 uniform blue, rather darker than the eggs of the 

 Common Wheatear; six had points, almost imperceptible, 

 of brownish, particularly at the larger end; one had a 

 deeper colour, with five or six spots of brown black on 

 the greater end. 



The adult male in breeding plumage has the top of 

 the head, nape, and upper part of back, rich buff; 

 lower part of the back white, mottled with black; 

 rump, upper tail coverts, and three parts of the tail 

 beneath, white; throat, and underneath eyes and ears, 

 upper wing coverts, and two medium tail feathers, 

 glossy black. Wings blackish brown; secondaries fringed 

 Avith grey, and the primaries underneath blackish brown; 

 chest, abdomen, flanks, and under tail coverts, light 

 buff, more or less deep on the chest; forehead, and a 

 line between the black of the throat and the neck, 

 creamy white. Beak and feet, black; iris dark brown. 



In autumn, according to Degland^ the top of the 



