These birds are in such esteem for the table, and so confined to solitary places, that they are not likely to increase to a degree as to change habits, which are favourable to vegetation. Wheat-ears are caught by suspending a hair noose between two turves placed on end, and touching each other in the form of a roof of a house. To this shelter the birds constantly run on the approach of danger, or even, apparently through timidity, on the gathering of storm-clouds.