60 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



The Young, v/hen full grown, differs a 

 good deal from the adult bird. The bill 

 and legs are brown ; top of the head and 

 back-hair brown, much spotted with very 

 dull white. Throat and breast light hair 

 brown, with small ■ dark spots and rather 

 mottled. The wings are dull black, the 

 secondary quills broadly margined with 

 reddish brown, primaries tipped with the 

 same. Rump white. Tail like the old 

 female ; under parts dirty white. 



Varieties. — A variety is in Mr. Bond's 

 collection almost w^hite, with the breast, 

 back, ear coverts, tail, and wing feathers 

 tinged with their local colours. A similar 

 one is recorded as having been seen near 

 Norwich (Nat., 1864, vol. i., p. 149). A buff 

 variety is also recorded as having been shot 

 near Worcester, and a white one at Thetford 

 (Zool., 1496 and 2927]. Two or three white 

 ones have also been seen or killed in the 

 neighbourhood of Eastbourne. 



Note. — This bird has a " chat " similar 

 to the last species though seldomer used, 

 except when the vicinity of the nest is 

 approached. It has also a song w'hich is 

 sweet, yet not powerful, and uttered gen- 

 erally from a mound, or the top of a heap 

 of stones, or from a wall. 



Flight. — The flight is generally of longer 

 duration than that of the Whinchat, being 

 continued across a field, from wall to wall, 

 or from one elevated place to another, 

 always alighting on a stone or elevated por- 

 tion of the ground, except when in search of 

 food, when it drops upon the ground from 

 its elevated perch. 



Migration. — This species is migratory, 

 arriving in this country at the end of March. 

 For years I knew a certain lane, near Hud- 

 dersfisld, where the Wheatear could be 

 found regularly about the last day of March 

 or the first of April. It departs again at 

 the end of September or early in October, 

 at which time it assembles, sometimes in 



large numbers, upon the coast. Gilbert 



White states that some remain in the 

 south through the winter, but there is prob- 

 ably some mistake, as I know of no other 

 record of its having been seen in the winter 

 in England. 



Food. — Insects of all kinds, when not 

 too large, also snails, slugs, worms, &c. 



Habitat. — This bird is common in most 

 parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland, 

 frequenting stony moorlands, rough places, 

 and cultivated parts where the fields are 

 divided by stone walls. In Yorkshire it is 

 generally common wherever rough stour or 

 stone walls are found, generally only one 

 pair frequent the same place, and when they 

 first arrive are very clean and really hand- 

 some birds. In this part of the country 

 they are called " WTiite-rumps," the white 

 upper tail-coverts being very conspicuous 

 when the bird takes flight. 



Abroad it has a very wide range, being 

 found all over Europe, in North Africa, 

 Siberia, Northern China, NorLh-Western 

 and Eastern North America, and Green- 

 land. It has also been taken two or three 

 times in Bermuda in the West Indies. 



Nest.— The nest is composed of dry 

 grass and moss, lined with wool or hair. It 

 is placed in a dry wall or in a heap of stones. 

 A pair breed in some dry moorland walls 

 every year, and after the young are fully 

 feathered, the old and young come together 

 to feed in my garden. The manner in which 

 they hop a yard or two, then stand, and 

 then hop another yard or two is very amus- 

 ing, now and then turning aside to pick up 

 some of my caterpillars, which I have 

 quartered upon a certain plant ; and some- 

 times in such cases, there is a desperate 

 struggle between my love of ornithology and 

 that of entomology, whether to drive the 

 bird away or allow my larvae to be eaten 

 I up. 



