Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/229

Rh I have noticed in clutches of eggs of this species, that when all the eggs have rust-coloured specks on the surface, one of the number generally has such specks much more strongly pronounced than the rest. Again, that when the clutch is of a pale greenish unspotted blue, uniform in colour, one egg occasionally exhibits a few faint rust-coloured specks. Such an egg I regard as answering to the variety that is so frequently found in the nests of other species, and in none is the difference so emphasized, in my opinion, as in the case of the Sparrow-Hawk and the Tree-Sparrow. Eight is freely spoken of as the extreme number of eggs in a clutch, but my belief is that six is much more frequent; very rarely seven. I have never found so many as eight myself, nor have I known anyone who has actually found this number; I have never met with a dealer who had a clutch of eight for sale, and therefore it would be interesting to me to learn what the authority is, and whence it emanated, for such a statement.

It is, of course, matter of history what immense numbers of Wheatears used to be taken in traps on the downs in bygone years when assembling previous to retiring from this country. In those days they were esteemed very delicious articles of food, and though the taste may not have died out, yet, owing to the large tracts of waste land which have been reclaimed since that era, the haunts of the Wheatear have been much encroached upon and virtually broken up. It is, too, common knowledge that the species is an adept at the art of mimicry; but it may not be so generally known that on fine warm nights in May it will sing till long after dark.

I have noticed that this species is to be met with more frequently some years than in others, and though doubtless numbers resort to furze-clad commons for breeding purposes in general with their near relatives the Stonechats, I do not agree that the nest is of necessity to be sought in such wild districts. On the contrary, I look upon the Whinchat, which is a spring migrant and arrives in this country about the middle of April, as a sociable bird, and partial to cultivated fields and roadside hedges, whereabouts it finds an abundance of insectivorous food and suitable spots for rearing its young.