THE WHEATEAR.*
Saxicola œnanthe, Linn. (sp.)
Motacillaœnanthe,„ Linn.„
Sylviaœnanthe,„ Lath.
Is a regular summer visitant, commonly distributed over Ireland and the surrounding islets;
Such as the Copelands, off Down; Rathlin, off the north of Antrim ;t Tory, off the north-west of Donegal; J and when visit- ing the largest of the islands of Arran, off Galway Bay, on the 8th of July, 1834, it was the only land bird of passage that we met with. Nowhere have I observed this beautiful bird in greater numbers than in the extreme north-west, and along the western coast generally : — with regard to Scotland, it is said to be " no- where more plentiful, than in the Outer Hebrides, and in the Orkney and Shetland Islands." § The wheatear is commonly the earliest of the su mm er birds in arrival, making its appearance usually in the last week of March. The earliest known to me about Belfast, were seen on the 19th of March, 1843, and 24th of March, 1847, — in the late spring of 1837, it did not appear until the 15th of April, nor in that of 1840, until the 29th of this month. Mr. Poole notes its arrival in Wexford on the 26th of March, and Mr. Neligan had not seen it in Kerry before the 25th of this month. About a dozen of wheatears were observed
In the north of Ireland this bird is commonly called stone-checker, from its
note, check—check, and its being generally seen about stones. In Kerry, according
to the Rev. T. Knox — as communicated in August, 1838 — it is called custeen-fay-clough, meaning " the cunning little old man under the stone." Having called the
attention of a good Irish scholar, Mr. Robert S. Mc Adam of Belfast, to the name of
this bird, he kindly supplied the following note : — "The name for the stone-checker in
the north and west of Ireland, is cloibhrean cloich. A county Tipperary man ques-
tioned, never heard that name for it, nor the county Kerry name either, (which you
have,) but says it is called in his county, casur cloch, which signifies the stone-hammer. The custeen-f ay -dough is spelled coistin faoi cloich, but seems to be a local
name for the bird. No one that I have asked had ever heard it."
Dr. J.D. Marshall.
In August, 1845, Mr. Hyndman saw several here.
Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 292.
