WHEATEAR. 
291 
The Stonechat is a different bird, though Magillivray called 
the present species the “ White-rumped Stonechat.” Throughout 
Europe the bird is commonly known as the “ White-rump,” and 
Saunders considers the name “wheatear” a corruption of white 
and cErs, — the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of the modern word 
“ rump.” 
In Europe and Asia the species is abundant, breeding from cen- 
tral Europe far to the northward, and migrating in winter to north- 
ern Africa. A few winter in the British Islands, though these may 
be of the Greenland race, which some authors think is a distinct 
form, — larger than those tliat breed in Europe, — as the Green- 
land birds are known to migrate across Great Britain. Ridgway 
states that the examples taken on our western coast are smaller and 
more like those found in central Europe. 
Formerly large numbers were trapped in the autumn on the 
Southdowns in England, and marketed, being considered little 
inferior in delicacy to the famous Ortolans. 
The favorite resorts of the Wheatear at all seasons are the lonely 
moors or open meadows by the sea-shore. It is an active bird and 
always alert, keeping up a perpetual flitting. It is very terrrestrial, 
though the Greenland race is said to perch on trees more fre- 
quently than the European bird. 
The song is sweet and sprightly, and the male often sings while 
hovering over his mate. 
Mr. Hagerup writes to me that the birds in Greenland sing at 
times very similarly to the Snow Buntings, — a song that he never 
heard from the Wheatears of Denmark, — and this song is ren- 
dered by both females and males. 
