PLATE CLf. 



or the beginning of April, and from that time till late in May : 

 about the end of September the Wheat-ears affemble and depart, the 

 laft flight in Oftober. A few birds occafionally remain in England 

 when the feafon is mild during the whole winter. 



As a bird of pafTage the Wheat-ear is a fpecies very widely dif- 

 fufed over the globe : towards the north it has been traced as far 

 as the remoteft of the Scottifli i (lands, Norway and Iceland, and by 

 Fabricius afcertanied even as a native of Greenland, Edwards, and 

 ^fter that writer Latham, fpeak of it as an inhabitant of the Eafl Indies, 

 ^nd from the late obfervations of Sonnini, Wheat-ears are by no 

 means uncommon in Egypt, In the Index Ornithologicus it is no- 

 %iccd as a native of Africa. 



There are feveral varieties of this fpecies, the principal of which 

 may be reduced to three, the Grey Wheat-ear of Pennant's Britifli 

 Zoology (Cul-blanc gris ef Brijfon) the Afk- coloured (Cul-blanc 

 cendre of Brijfon) and the Dwina Wheat^ear, var. J. 



The firft of thefe differs from the ufual kind In being olive or 

 tawny above, with a mixture of whitilh and fulvous ; the lower part 

 of the neck marked with very fmall grey fpots ; the two middle tail 

 feathers wholly black, the reft, as in the Common Wheat-ear, and 

 fringed with pale rufous ; the bill and legs brown. 



In the Alh-coloured Wheat-ear, the plumage as the name implies 

 is of an aflien colour, at leaft, on the upper parts of the body, and 

 irregularly mixed with grey brown ; the rump of the fame co- 

 lour 



