WHINCHAT 
15 
a pleasant song, though not very striking or con- 
spicuous. The alarm note, when the nesting-ground 
is trespassed upon, is an abrupt noise like striking 
a knife-blade on a pebble, accompanied by a jerk 
of the body and tail. The Wheatear is most 
familiar to the eye in flight, when the white tail- 
coverts show very clearly, as in the case of the 
Bullfinch, or the white-tailed rabbits with which 
the Wheatear consorts : the flight is straight and 
skimming, and the bird alights with peculiar 
suddenness, without any slackening or turning. 
The name " Wheatear " has nothing to do with 
ears of wheat, and is simply the slightly altered 
modern form of the early English or Anglo-Saxon 
name which meant " white-rump," which is one 
of the bird's local names at the present day. The 
enormous numbers of Wheatears which were 
formerly caught in a special and curious form of 
trap by shepherds of the Sussex Downs were 
mainly secured at the time of the southward 
migration of old birds and young in August, 
WHINCHAT. 
(Pratincola rubetra.) 
Grasschat, Furzechat. — Like the Wheatear, but 
unlike the next species, the Whinchat is a summer 
