28 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



BLACK-THEOATED WHEATEAE. 



Saxicola stapazina (Vieillot). Nouv. Diet., xxi., 

 p. 425 (1818). 



At a meeting of the British Ornithological Club, held 

 on June 20, 1906, " Dr. N. F. Ticehurst exhibited an 

 adult male of this species. The bird was shot between 

 Lydd and Brooklands, in Kent, on May 23, 1906, by a 

 labouring man, and Dr. Ticehurst saw it on May 24. 

 The bird was perfectly fresh." — {Bulletin of the B.O.C., 

 vol. xvi., p. 124, 1906). 



Genus PRATINCOLA, Koch. 



WHINCHAT. 



Pratiiicola ruhetra (Linnseus). >S'.iV., i., p. 332 



(176G). 



The Whinchat is certainly less abundant than the 

 Wheatear in Kent. The habit of this species is to keep 

 more to the inland parts of the country, affecting fields 

 that are partly surrounded by woods, copse and hedges, 

 on which they can rest and keep watch over the nests, 

 which are placed on the ground in the grass a few yards 

 from their perch, and they always take advantage of any 

 elevated ground or mound, large stones or posts. In 

 some large fields two or three pairs will take up positions 

 for breeding. 



Writing in 1783, Latham says: "I have seen them 

 in Kent throughout the year." Boys, in his Birds of 

 Sandwich, 1792, calls it " Winchat." Mudie in 1835, 

 says: "It is probable that the Whinchat retires in the 



