34. WHEATEAR. _Saxicola Oenanthe,_ Linnaeus. French, "Motteux cul
blanc," "Traquet moteux."--A very common summer visitant to all the
Islands, arriving in March and departing again in October, none
remaining through the winter--at least, I have never seen a Wheatear in
the Islands as late as November on any occasion. In the Vale, where a
great many breed, the young began to make their appearance out of the
nest and flying about, but still fed by their parents, about the 16th of
June. In Guernsey it is rather locally distributed, being common all
round the coast, both on the high and low part of the Island, but only
making its appearance in the cultivated part in the interior as an
occasional straggler. It is quite as common in Alderney and the other
Islands as it is in Guernsey, in Alderney there being few or no
enclosures, and no hedgerow timber. It is more universally distributed
over the whole Island, in the cultivated as well as the wild parts.

Professor Ansted includes it in his list, but marks it as only occurring
in Guernsey and Sark. There are several specimens in the Museum, but I
did not see any eggs either there or in young Le Cheminant's collection.
This is probably because in Guernsey the Wheatear has a great partiality
for laying its eggs under large slabs and boulders of granite perfectly
immovable; the stones forming one of the Druids' altars in the Vale,
were made use of to cover a nest when I was there.


35. REED WARBLER. _Acrocephalus streperus_, Vieillot. French,
"Rousserolle effarvatte," "Bec-fin des roseaux."--I did not find out the
Reed Warbler as a Guernsey bird till this year (1878), though it is a
rather numerous but very local summer visitant. But Mr. MacCulloch put