WHILK. 
533 
ever since ; and now, while writing- this, the twenty-second day of 
December, they are in full song-. When in a large cage or aviary, where 
there is plenty of room, it is very amusing to see them at play, flying 
up and down, and spreading open their large wings in a curious manner, 
dancing and singing at the same time.”* 
These birds usually sell for a shilling a dozen ; and it is a common 
custom in those parts where they are taken, to visit the traps, take out 
the bird, and leave a penny in each as a reward for the shepherd. It is 
esteemed a great delicacy, not much inferior to the ortolan, and is 
sometimes sent to the London market ready picked. 
The song of this bird is pleasingly varied ; is uttered not unfre- 
quently on the wing, hovering over the female in the courting season, 
and displaying its tail in a very singular manner, by an expansion of 
the feathers. Its flight is smooth and rapid, but near the surface of the 
ground ; and it commonly alights upon the top of a small hillock, stone, 
or wall. 
In the continuation to Shaw’s Zoology, Mr. Stephens has removed 
this species to the head of a new genus, which he has named Vitta 
Jlora, Several authors have described a variety of this bird, having a 
mixture of whitish and fulvous on the upper part, and very small grey 
spots on the lower part of the neck ; and the two middle feathers of the 
tail wholly black. This variety is named the grey wheatear by Mr. 
Pennant, in the Appendix to his British Zoology. 
On the 24th of March, 1804, a vast number of these birds made 
their first appearance on the south coast of Devon, near Kingsbridge, 
in a low sheltered situation, and continued in flock the whole of the 
day, busied in search of food : the flock consisted entirely of males, 
without a single female amongst them. For some time the wind had 
been fluctuating, and the weather cold, attended with hail and snow, 
for a day or two preceding their appearance; and a strong gale of wind 
from the east, obliged these birds to make a landing so much farther to 
the westward than usual in such numbers. The Wheatear is by no 
means common in Devonshire or Cornwall in the breeding season, and 
never plentiful in either during the migrative seasons ; but is most fre- 
quently observed on the fallow lands in the autumn. 
WHEEL-BIRD. — A name for the Nightjar. 
WHEETIE-WHY-BIRD.— A name for the White Throat. 
WHEWER. — A name for the Wigeon. 
WHEY BEARD. — A name for the White Throat. 
WHILK. — A name for the Scoter. 
