62 WIHEATEAR. 
it is said, are still to be seen below the water when the 
latter is sufficiently clear. Im one sense indeed his description 
suits it as a ‘Deserted village,’ for the signs of ‘life are 
banished from it for ever, and if its consecrated church-yard 
still receives the dead, it is those who perish by shipwreck 
on the retired coast, but who will one day come forth when 
‘the sea shall give up the dead that are in it.’ 
This species is also common in the neighbourhood of Halifax 
in open situations, and in Gloucestershire, on Durdham Downs, 
near Bristol; in Lincolnshire; in Cambridgeshire, near New- 
market; in Derbyshire, near Melbourne; and in Cxfordshire; 
near Grighton and Rottingdean, Sussex; Burwood Common, 
in Surrey; Middlesex; in Devonshire and Cornwall it is less 
frequent, both as a resident and on its migration. But the 
most abundant haunts of the species, at least in the later 
portion of the year, are the pastoral districts, the open 
downs of the south of England, particularly those of Sussex 
and Dorset, as also the dry sand-banks to be found on some 
parts of the coast; such, and other barren and stony wastes,. 
are their habitual resort, and they are seldom seen in any 
more cultivated places, except such are immediately adjacent 
to the former. Mr. Thompson has noticed them in a dock- 
yard at Belfast, close to the town, perching on the piles of 
timber. : 
They are spread in like manner through Wales and Scotland, 
where, among other localities, the Pentland Hills, Arthur’s 
Seat, and Salisbury Craigs, near Edinburgh, are favourite 
resorts. In Sutherlandshire they are very abundant in the 
mountainous districts. 
In Ireland the Wheatear is also a regular summer visitant. 
In the Orkneys it occurs, as likewise very plentifully in 
the outer Hebrides and the Shetland Islands. 
This is a migratory species, and arrives here about the 
middle or towards the latter end of March but, but earlier 
or later with the season. They seem to cross the Channel 
during the night, few arriving after nine o'clock in the 
morning, and none after twelve. They seem fatigued with 
their journey, and occasionally perch on the fishing-boats at 
sea. They do not always travel every day, and consequently, 
as soon as those who have first come are able to travel further 
inwards, it frequently happens that of the numbers to be 
seen in the morning none are visible in the afternoon, and 
it may not be for a day or two that their places are supplied 
