BRITISH BIRDS OF THE ROBIN KIND. 4-33 



the habits of our British Rubelrce are admirably potirtrayed. This 

 note I should have taken the liberty to have transcribed entire, had it 

 not been already cited at page 34. It contains, however, one remark, 

 to which I rather object. Sir William says, that " they alight at 

 intervals, run for some distance, and again remount to a fresh station." 

 M. Temminck also observes, " leur nourriture se compose uniquement 

 d'insectes, qu'ils saisissent le plus souvent en courant avec celerite ; 

 leur tarse souvent tres long les rend assez agiles coureurs." Mr. 

 Selby again remarks, in his " generic characters " of Saxicola, (which 

 term has always hitherto comprised both the wheatears and the chats,) 

 that " they run with much celerity, being enabled to do so by the great 

 proportional length of the tarsus." These several observations seem to 

 imply, that the mode of progression of these birds, when on the ground, 

 is not by successive hops, but by running, in the manner of the larks 

 and wagtails ; the latter, however, is not the case ; the wheatear, as 

 Mr. Selby afterwards observes, " hops with great celerity," and much 

 in the manner of a robin, and the chats also move forward by hopping, 

 though not exactly like the wheatear ; they dart forward a considerable 

 space at each spring, and hardly rising from the ground, really appear, 

 at a little distance, to move by running. These minutiae, trivial as 

 they may perhaps seem, are by no means to be disregarded, inasmuch 

 as they often render most essential assistance towards the grouping of 

 animals in a natural and proper manner. In this point of view, the 

 differences in the progressive motion of birds seem never to have been 

 sufficiently taken into consideration. 



The Rev. G. White remarks, in the Natural History of Selborne, 

 that " whinchats and stonechatters stay with us the whole year." 

 This, in the whinchat, is very unusual, but a few stonechats may 

 generally be observed throughout the winter on most commons in the 

 south of England. Both species were, however, to be seen upon 

 Mitcham common last January. A few wheatears, also, are sometimes 

 observed during the winter months, and I have been, more than once, 

 informed, that nightingales and redstarts have been noticed so late as 

 in the last week in November. I cannot, however, corroborate this 

 from my own personal observation, but I think it not very improbable. 

 The whinchat and stonechat, in confinement, are rather tender birds, 

 and are remarkable for the curious and outre positions which they 

 continually assume ; attitudes which, in stuffed specimens, would be 

 declared quite unnatural by such as were unacquainted with the birds 

 when alive. The Rubetrce (especially the stonechat) and also the 

 Saxlcolae are further remarkable for perpetually flirting the tail. 



