WHEAT-EAR, (MOTACILLA Oenanthe), in ornithology, a species omitted to be described under MOTACILLA. It is a bird of passage, and begins to visit us about the middle of March, and continues coming till the beginning of May: it has been observed that the females arrive about a fortnight before the males. They frequent warrens, downs, and the edges of hills, especially those that are fenced with stone-walls. They breed in the latter, in old rabbit-burrows, cliffs, and frequently under old timber: their nest is large, made of dried grass, rabbit's down, a few feathers, and horse-hair: and they lay from six to eight eggs, of a light-blue colour.
They grow very fat in autumn, and are esteemed a delicacy. About Eastbourn in Sussex they are taken by the shepherds in great numbers, in snares made of horse hair, placed under a long turf: being very timid birds, the motion of a cloud, or the appearance of a hawk, will drive them for shelter into those traps, and so they are taken. The numbers annually ensnared in that district alone, amount to about 1850 dozen, which sell usually at six-pence per dozen; and what appears very extraordinary, the numbers that return the following year do not appear to be lessened. The reason that such a quantity are taken in the neighbourhood of Eastbourn is, that it abounds with a certain fly which frequents the adjacent hills, for the sake of the wild thyme they are covered with; which is not only a favourite food of that insect, but the plant on which it deposits its eggs.
Wheat-ears are much fatter in a rainy season than in a dry one; for they not only feed on insects but on earthworms, which come out of the ground in greater numbers in wet weather than in dry.
The head and back of the male are of a light grey, tinged
tinged with red: over each eye is a white line; beneath that is a broad black stroke, passing across each eye to the hind part of the head: the rump and lower half of the tail are white; the upper half black: the under side of the body is white, tinged with yellow; on the neck it inclines to red: the quill-feathers are black, edged with reddish brown. The colours of the female are more dull: it wants that black stroke across the eyes, and the bar of white on the tail is narrower. These birds disappear in September, at least from the northern parts of this kingdom; but in Hampshire many of them continue the whole winter.