Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/573

Rh H E W H E 537 England at the end of February and almost always by the middle of March. The cock bird, with his bluish grey back and light buff breast, set off by black ear-coverts, wings, and part of the tail, is rendered still more conspicuous by his white rump as he takes short Hights in front of those who disturb him, while his sprightly actions and gay song harmonize so well with his delicately-tinted plumage as to render him a welcome object to all who delight in free and open country. When alarmed both sexes have a sharp monosyllabic note that sounds like chat ; and this has not only entered into some of the local names of this species and of its allies, but has caused all to be frequently spoken of as &quot;Chats.&quot; The nest is constantly placed under ground ; the bird takes advantage of the hole of some other animal, or the shelter of a clod in a fallow- iield, or a recess beneath a rock. A large amount of soft materials is therein collected, and on them from 5 to 8 pale blue eggs are laid. The Wheatear has a very wide range throughout the Old World, extending in summer far within the Arctic Circle, from Norway to the Lena and Yana valleys, while it winters in Africa beyond the Equator, and in India. But it also breeds regularly in Greenland and some parts of North America. Its reaching the former and the eastern coast of the latter, as well as the Bermudas, may possibly be explained by the drifting of individuals from Iceland ; but far more interesting is the fact of its continued seasonal appearance in Alaska without ever showing itself in British Columbia or California, and without ever having been observed in Kamchatka, Japan, or China, though it is a summer resident in the Tchnktchi peninsula. Hence it would seem as though its annual flights across Bering s Strait must be in connexion with a migratory movement that passes to the north and west of the Stanovoi range of mountains, for Mi- Nelson s suggestion (Cruise of the Corwen, pp. 59, 60) of a north west passage from Boothia Felix, where Ross observed it, is less likely. 1 More than 60 other species more or less allied to the Wheatear have been described, 2 but probably so many do not really exist. Some 8 are included in the European fauna ; but the majority are inhabitants of Africa. Several of them are birds of the desert ; and here it may be remarked that, while most of these exhibit the sand- coloured tints so commonly found in animals of like habitat, a few assume a black plumage, which, as explained by Canon Tristram, is equally protective, since it assimilates them to the deep shadows cast by projecting stones and other inequalities of the surface. Of other genera closely allied to, and by some writers included in, Saxicola there is only need here to mention Pratincola, which comprises among others two well-known British birds, the Stone- chat and Whinchat, P. rubicola and P. rubetra, the latter a summer- migrant, while the former is resident as a species, and the black head, ruddy breast, and white collar and wing-spot of the cock render him a conspicuous object on almost every furze-grown com mon or heath in the British Islands, as he sits on a projecting twig or flits from bush to bush. This bird has a wide range in Europe, and several other species, more or less resembling it, inhabit South Africa, Madagascar, Reunion, and Asia, from some of the islands of the Indian Archipelago to Japan. The Whinchat, on the other hand, much more affects enclosed lands, and with a wide range has no very near ally. Placed near these forms by nearly all systematists is the group containing the Australian genus Pctrceca, containing about a dozen species, the &quot;Robins,&quot; so called of the colonists, some of them remarkable for their bright plumage ; and possibly allied to them, as indeed is generally thought, with 5 or 6 species peculiar to New Zealand, are the genera Miro and Myiomoira. But Prof. Parker has seen in the osteology of the first inferior characters which appear to him to separate them from their presumed colleagues, and, as stated before (OKXITHOLOGY, vol. xviii. p. 48), he terms them &quot; Struthious Warblers.&quot; Like so many other forms from the same countries, they probably preserve the more generalized structure of earlier and lower types, and should possibly be distinguished as a separate sub-family Petroscinie. All the birds mentioned in this article form the group Saxicolinae, of most authors. Some, however, have raised them to the rank of a distinct Family Saxicolidse, (&amp;lt;:f. WARBLER) ; and Mr Sharpe (Cat. Birth Brit. Mus., iv. pp. 164-199) has placed Petroeca and Pratincola in the Family Afiiscicapidse. (A. N.) WHEATLEY, FRANCIS (1747-1801), English portrait and landscape painter, was born in 1747 at Wild Court, Covent Garden, London. He studied at Shipley s drawing- school and the lloyal Academy, and won several prizes 1 On tli is subject see also Dr Stejneger s observations in his &quot;Ornitho logical Exploration of Kamtsoliatka,&quot; in Bull. U.S. Nat. Museum, No. 29, pp. 349-351, and those of Prof. Palmen, Vega-Exped. Vetensknjil. hikttagdser, v. pp. 260-262. 2 Cf. the monograph of Messrs Blauford and Dresser, in Proc. Zool. Society, 1874, pp. 213-241. from the Society of Arts. He assisted in the decoration of Vauxhall, and aided Mortimer in painting a ceiling for Lord Melbourne at Brocket Hall (Hertfordshire). In youth his life was irregular and dissipated. He eloped to Ireland with the wife of Gresse, a brother artist, and established himself in Dublin as a portrait-painter, executing, among other works, an interior of the Irish House of Commons. His scene from the London Riots of 1780 was admirably engraved by Heath. He painted several subjects for BoydelPs Shakespeare Gallery, designed illustrations to Bell s edition of the poets, and practised to some small extent as an etcher and mezzotint-engraver. It is, however, as a painter, in both oil and water-colour, of landscapes and rustic subjects that Wheatley will be most favourably remembered. His work in these departments is graceful and pleasing, but lacks force and the impress of reality. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1790, and an academician in the following year. He died on 28th June 1801. His wife, afterwards Mrs Pope, was known as a painter of flowers and portraits. WHEATON, HENRY (1785-1848), American lawyer and diplomatist, was born at Providence, Rhode Island, on 27th November 1785. He graduated at Brown univer sity in 1802, was admitted to the bar in 1805, and, after two years study abroad, practised law at Providence (1807-12) and at New York City (1812-25). He was a justice of the Marine Court of the city of New York from 1815 to 1819, and reporter of the United States Supreme Court from 1816 to 1827, aiding in 1825 in the revision of the laws of New York. His diplomatic career began in 1825, with an appointment to Denmark as charge d affaires, followed by that of minister to Prussia, 1835 to 1845. During this period he had published a Digest of the Law of Maritime Captures (1815) ; twelve volumes of Supreme Court Reports, and a Digest ; a great number of historical articles, and some collected works ; Elements of International Law (1836) ; Histoire du Progres du Droit des Gens en Europe (1841), translated in 1845 by William B. Lawrence as a History of the Law of Nations in Europe, and America ; and the Right of Visitation and Search (1842). The History took at once the rank which it has always held, that of the leading work on the subject of which it treats. 3 Wheaton s general theory is that inter national law consists of &quot;those rules of conduct which reason deduces, as consonant to justice, from the nature of the society existing among independent nations, with such definitions and modifications as may be established by general consent.&quot; The publication of a second transla tion by Dana in 1866 led to a prolonged lawsuit between him and Lawrence. In 1846 Wheaton, who was more than sixty years of age, was requested to resign by the new president, Polk, who needed his place for another appointment. The request provoked general condemna tion ; but Wheaton resigned and returned to the United States. He was called at once to Harvard College as lecturer on international law ; but he died at Dorchester, Massachusetts, on llth March 1848. WHEATSTONE, SIR CHARLES (1802-1875), the prac tical founder of modern telegraphy, was born at Gloucester in February 1802, his father being a music-seller in that city. In 1806 the family removed to London. Wheat- stone s education was carried on in several private schools, at which he appears to have displayed no remarkable attainments, being mainly characterized by a morbid shy ness and sensitiveness that prevented him from making friends. About 1816 he was sent to his uncle, a musical instrument maker in the Strand, to learn the trade ; but with his father s countenance he spent more time in read- 3 See Davis s Outlines of International Lav; 26, and Woolsey s International Law (Index, under Wheaton). XXIV. 68