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SYLVIADJE. 
THE WHEATEAR* * * § 
Saxicola oencmthe, Linn, (sp.) 
Motacitta „ „ 
Sylvia ,, Lath. 
Is a regular summer visitant, commonly distributed over 
Ireland and the surrounding islets ; 
Such as the Copelands, off Down; Rathlin, off the north of 
Antrim ;f Tory, off the north-west of Donegal ;J and when visit- 
ing the largest of the islands of Arran, off Galway Bay, on the 
8th of July, 1834, it was the only land bird of passage that we 
met with. Nowhere have I observed this beautiful bird in greater 
numbers than in the extreme north-west, and along the western 
coast generally : — with regard to Scotland, it is said to be “ no- 
where more plentiful, than in the Outer Hebrides, and in the 
Orkney and Shetland Islands.” § The wheatear is commonly the 
earliest of the summer birds in arrival, making its appearance 
usually in the last week of March. The earliest known to me 
about Belfast, were seen on the 19th of March, 1843, and 24th 
of March, 1847, — in the late spring of 1837, it did not appear 
until the 15th of April, nor in that of 1840, until the 29th of 
this month. Mr. Poole notes its arrival in Wexford on the 26th 
of March, and Mr. Neligan had not seen it in Kerry before the 
25th of this month. About a dozen of wheatears were observed 
* In the north of Ireland this bird is commonly called stone- checker, from its 
note, check — check, and its being generally seen about stones. In Kerry, according 
to the Rev. T. Knox — as communicated in August, 1838 — it is called custeen-fay - 
clough , meaning “ the cunning little old man under the stone.” Having called the 
attention of a good Irish scholar, Mr. Robert S. Me Adam of Belfast, to the name of 
this bird, he kindly supplied the following note : — “The name for the stone-checker in 
the north and west of Ireland, is doibhrean doich. A county Tipperary man ques- 
tioned, never heard that name for it, nor the county Kerry name either, (which you 
have,) but says it is called in his county, casur dock, which signifies the stone-ham- 
mer. The custeen-fay -dough is spelled coistin faoi cloich , but seems to be a local 
name for the bird. No one that I have asked had ever heard it.” 
f Dr. J. D. Marshall. 
^ In August, 1845, Mr. Hyndman saw several here. 
§ Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 292. 
