178 
SYLVIAM. 
of Sussex, where, until then, they are scarcely met with.” The 
young birds are stated, by Mr. Stewart, to remain a month or six 
weeks longer than the old. 
Throughout our wild mountain-pastures and turf-bogs, as well 
as the rabbit-burrows, sand-hills, and rocks, that skirt the coast, 
the wheatear is found in its season, and in the first-mentioned lo- 
calities, where, even at the most genial period of the year, we see 
but few of the feathered tribe, is highly attractive, from the beauty 
of its plumage, lively habits, and variously uttered song. In the 
other localities too, we see but few birds in summer, but with the 
ever-living sea in view, the want of them is not felt, as in the moun- 
tain solitude. I have walked in the middle of July, over the 
marine sand-hills of Magilligan from east to west, a distance 
of about ten miles, and met only with wheatears, larks, tit- 
larks, and grey-linnets. About artificial embankments, and in 
populous neighbourhoods, the wheatear will sometimes come 
under our notice : — at the outer dock-yard of Belfast we have 
even seen it, robin-like, perched on piles of timber. In its wild 
haunts around this town, it has become much scarcer of late years, 
and has deserted some places altogether. The situation of 
the nest varies according to the haunts, being in old stone walls, 
on the ground, among debris of rocks, &c. In the last, it may be 
found about the Giant’s Causeway, where the species is numerous. 
I have been much interested in witnessing their flight here in the 
middle of June; when, from a considerable height, they descended 
with motionless wings to the precipitous rocks contiguous to their 
nests : the body drooping below the wings, and the breast 
puffed out, impart to them a very singular appearance. The 
wheatear is not specially looked after for the table in the north of 
Ireland ; for which purpose, indeed, the species does not appear 
in sufficient numbers.* Rutty, in his Natural History of the 
county of Dublin, has remarked that “ it is excellent food, and 
very fat, and for its delicacy is by some called the Irish ortolan” 
(vol. i. p. 313). 
* Mr. St. John, too, informs us in his ‘Wild Sports of the Highlands’ that it is never 
sought after in Morayshire, p. 140. 
