STONECHAT 31 



Hauimond ; Dover, C. Gordon ; Waliner, Rev. B. Austen ; 

 Dover, G. Gray ; Folkestone, H. Ullyett ; Dover, Plom- 

 ley Collection. Cobhani, Carton, Ifield and Mailing 

 Valley, Rev. C. H. Fielding. 



In the Birds of Bainham Mr, W. Prentis writes that 

 the Whinchat " comes in April. A pair frequented a 

 narrow coppice on my farm in 1886. On mowing clover 

 a nest was discovered containing four blue eggs, built on 

 the ground ; the scythe cut clean over it. The hay-makers 

 were puzzled, never having seen blue eggs in such a 

 place before. It was at least 50 yards from the hedge." 

 In 1902 Mr. T. Hepburn observed " a pair on the marsh- 

 land at Dungeness." 



In the Bulletin of the B.O.C , 1906, the date of the 

 arrival of the Whinchat in Kent is March 15, 1905. 



STONECHAT. 



Pratincola ruhicola (Linnaeus). S.N., i., p. 332 

 (1766). 



Furze-Chat. 



The Stonechat is far from being a common bird in 

 any part of Kent, although it is more often met with 

 on the higher inland furze and heather-covered commons 

 and hills, which it prefers. In the winter it descends 

 to the valleys and lowlands for shelter. In the summer 

 we have seen it and the young birds on the heather- 

 covered hills near Tunbridge Wells, on the Boxley Hills 

 and Blackheath. The first Stonechats met with in 

 Romney Marsh were on December 17, and they remained 

 about the stunted bushes and ditches during the greater 

 part of the winter. We have one which was obtained 



