WHITE-RUMPED WHEATEAR. 



567 



These birds, which are very abundant in many- 

 parts of Britain, arrive in this country in March, 

 the females generally appearing first: they con- 

 tinue migrating till May, when the young are 

 hatched. They are not gregarious, seldom more 

 than a pair or two being seen together, except 

 towards autumn, when they appear in small flocks 

 of forty or fifty : the numbers that are taken in 

 the neighbourhood of East Bourne, in Sussex, are 

 really astonishing, when we consider that so few 

 are ever seen together, generally amounting to 

 upwards of 1800 dozens in number annually; as 

 many as 84 dozens are recorded to have been 

 captured in one day on the South Downs by a 

 single shepherd. They are caught in a singular 

 manner, by placing two turfs on edge in the shape 

 of a Roman T; at each end a small horse-hair noose 

 is fastened to a stick, which the birds, either in 

 search of food, or on the appearance of a hawk, 

 or the motion of a cloud, get under for shelter, 

 being very timid animals, and are certain to be en- 

 tangled in the noose. Pennant informs us that 

 they sold at the rate of six-pence per dozen : 

 they cannot be had now for more than treble that 

 sum, even in the height of the season. It used to 

 be a common custom for the inhabitants in the 

 vicinity of the traps to visit them, take out the 

 bird, and leave a penny for the shepherd, but that 

 is in a great measure abolished. Numbers of them 

 are picked and sent up to the London poulterers, 

 and others are potted, and are as much esteemed 

 in England as the Ortolan is on the continent. 



They breed under shelter of a clod or turf, on 



