Stone-chat 127 



white collar, rich chestnut breast and rather stumpy tail, which in 

 life is hardl\- still for a moment. In the autumn, the male loses 

 something of his beauty ; the sharpness of definition between the 

 black, white and chestnut becomes blurred owing to the feathers 

 being edged with reddish-brown ; and the actual colouration of the 

 throat and breast is duller. 



The sexes are, of course, very different in plumage ; the female 

 is much more sombrely clad, and is more or less protectiveh' coloured 

 for nesting purposes. 



The Stone-chat makes his headquarters on the commons where 

 there are plenty- of gorse-bushes ; they spend the whole year round 

 in the proximity of gorse ; whether on the heather moorland, or 

 the warren, or the sandy cliffs facing the sea, gorse-bushes seem a 

 necessity — if they are wanting, so is the Stone-chat. 



The birds are, moreover, curiously selective in the sites they 

 choose for their homes. Of the commons they seem to love best the 

 " poor " commons, i.e., those on which there are poor " rights," 

 and which are, in consequence, rather closely cropped b\- the common- 

 holdei"s for litter, kindling and so forth. Best of all, they love the 

 rough " Bentlings " bordering the sea-shore. On the larger moor- 

 lands they may be seen, if gorse-bushes are present, but not in the 

 same numbers as on the " Bentlings " or poor commons. If the 

 moor consists of heather and nothing else, the Stone-chat is rarely 

 present. 



They are a ver\- determined and pugnacious species, and once 

 they have selected a home, they do not willingly permit any other 

 bird to encroach on their property. Thus, you mav know of six 

 or seven pairs of birds along these particular " Bentlings," but each 

 pair claims ownership of a certain district, and allows no other 

 Stone-chat to trespass over the boundary. They treat human 

 intruders much as they do their own kind. 



When such an one appears on the scene, both birds — unless the 

 female is sitting — fly out to give battle, and scold and storm until 

 he is over their " march." If you walk along this coastline path 

 you will frequently fall in with these birds, and each successive pair 

 behave in much the same way. As you approach within some 50 

 yards of their favourite spot, they appear, perched on a bramble- 

 bush or some convenient twig, or on the prickly wire-fence or railings 

 bordering the path, uttering their " u-tick, tick " note and cocking 

 their tails in fur}-. As you draw dangerously near, they drop under 

 the bank and out of sight for a moment, only to reappear a few 

 yards further on and repeat the same scolding. So they will follow 

 you with intermittent abuse until you have passed be\'ond their 

 jurisdiction. A hundred yards further on you will meet a second 

 pair, and the\- will treat you with the same contumely. 



Unlike the Wheat-ears, the bush-chats are essentially perching- 

 birds, and one rarely or never sees them on the ground. On some 

 gorse-bush on their own compound — or any railing or fence that is 



