Birds of Leicestershire hi 



tiful bird in breeding plumage, with his black head and 

 bright chestnut breast. The whinchat is a common 

 summer visitor, and is known locally as the utick, from 

 his note. Mr. Browne has no record of two or three other 

 rare species of wheatears which occasionally visit this 

 country. We have the common redstart, but it is rare, 

 and I have ore record of the rare black redstart, about 

 four years ago, which haunted a certain stretch of the 

 Watling Street Road. There is only one other record 

 for the county. These are the only two which visit this 

 country. The redbreast and nightingale are, of course, 

 on our list. 



The next sub-family, ' Sylviince ' — the warblers — 

 are the most difficult of all to see much of. They are all, 

 except the Dartford warbler, which is very local and only 

 found in one or two of the southern counties, and the 

 golden crested wren, summer visitors only and prac- 

 tically all of them haunt places where the dense cover 

 affords them hiding-places, which they make use of very 

 effectually. They are a charming family of dainty little 

 birds, some of which have delightful songs, such as the 

 blackcap and the garden warbler. We have all those 

 included in Mr. Browne's list except the aquatic warbler, 

 which is only mentioned as having occurred once between 

 40 and 50 years ago, and the reed warrler, which requires 

 reed beds and though it may possibly occur at Bosworth 

 I have not yet met with it. Our list comprises the 

 greater and lesser white-throats, the latter more plen- 

 tiful with us than in many districts. Mr. Browne says 

 ' sparingly distributed ' — the blackcap, garden warbler, 

 the golden crested wren, the chiff chaff, willow warbler 

 and wood warbler ; the latter I have only seen on its 

 spring migration, and Mr. Browne writes that he had not 

 seen one for 25 years, and is evidently sceptical as to its 

 occurrence in the county, but though I have only seen 

 it here as a passenger on migration and not as a breeding 

 species. I have found it in one or two places in War- 

 wickshire within about 12 miles of the Watling Street ; 

 the sedge warbler, whose chattering song you may often 

 hear on a summer's night in some roadside hedge ; the 



