BRITISH BIRDS OF THE ROBIN KIND. 



431 



more cultivated parts, in small inclosures, and along hedges by the 

 road- side, especially if there be a thick growth of weeds on the bank 

 beneath ; but the wheatears, the species to which I would restrict the 

 generic term Saxicola, are found more upon large open downs, and in 

 mountainous and rocky districts ; our British species abounds in many 

 parts of the sea-coast, and at the ebbing of the tide, may often be seen 

 on the sands, in great numbers, feeding upon the various marine insects, 

 &c. thrown up by the sea. A few may also be generally seen about 

 ploughed fields, in gravel-pits, and in the vicinity of old stone-walls ; 

 but they never haunt furze-brakes, the true habitat of the Rubetrce, 

 unless in the immediate neighbourhood of such situations as are above- 

 mentioned. The nest, in the few species of Saxicola (as here restricted) 

 whose nidification is known, is built on the ground, under covert of a 

 stone, or clod of earth ; frequently in a deserted rabbit-burrow, or in 

 the hole of a rock, or old wall. It is composed of dry grass and moss^ 

 intermixed with wool, and lined with the last mentioned material, and 

 generally (when it can be procured) with hair. The song of our native 

 species is pleasing and varied, and its notes are continuous and 

 unbroken ; not, as in the other British Rubeculince, delivered in short 

 interrupted staves. It is generally uttered as it suspends itself on the 

 wing over the female or the site of its nest. During the pairing season, 

 the manners of this bird are very amusing ; with tail expanded, and 

 wings a little spread, he jerks, and bobs, and flirts about, often appear- 

 ing as though he found it difficult to balance himself upon his perch. 

 A close observer may have noticed somewhat similar manners in the 

 chats, but in these birds they are hardly marked enough to attract par- 

 ticular notice, and would never, perhaps, have been observed at all, had 

 not the attention been excited previously by beholding them in the 

 wheatear. For the standard of the generic division Saxicola, might be 

 selected the russet wheatear (Latham) of southern Europe, (S. stapa- 

 zina, Tem.,) in preference to the wheatear of this country ; the latter 

 resembling too much the Rubetrce to be considered as the standard 

 species of its genus. 



The common whinchat and stonechat of this country seem to be the 

 only European species of Rubetrce, the other various traquets of M. 

 Temminck appearing all to range more naturally in the wheatear genus. 

 There are, however, I believe, several others found in different parts of 

 the old continent, and I lately saw a specimen of a bird of this genus 

 from New Holland, which excepting in being a little larger, was hardly 

 to be distinguished from the European stonechat. The general haunts 



