STONECHAT. 221 



the wings." It has a fine song — " as if a golden pea leaped and 

 vibrated in the pipe behind his gaudy bib," says Miss Haviland, 

 but no one records the song during its spring visits to Britain, 

 too often cut short by the collector's gun. The nest is shown 

 on Plate 93. 



The upper parts of the male in spring are brown, with a white 

 or buff superciliary stripe, and the proximal half of the tail, 

 except the two central feathers, rich chestnut. The throat and 

 breast are blue with a broad band-like spot of chestnut, and 

 below the blue are bands of black, white and chestnut, above 

 its whitish under parts. The bill is black, the legs brown, the 

 irides dark brown. The female has tawny white under parts 

 except for a dark band across the breast. The young are at 

 first spotted and streaked, as shown in the upper figure, but 

 after the moult resemble the female. Length, 57 ins. Wing, 

 2'9 ins. Tarsus, i*i ins. 



The White-spotted Bluethroat, C. s. cyanecula (Wolf) is the 

 more southern form which breeds in Europe, France and 

 Holland to the Baltic Provinces, and winters in north-western 

 Africa. In this bird the breast spot is white and not chestnut. 

 It has occurred some eight or more times, mostly on spring 

 migration, in Kent, Sussex, Yorkshire and the Shetlands. 



Stonechat. Saxicola rubicola (Linn.). 



The Stonechat (Plate 92) nests from Sweden southward to 

 north Africa, where it also winters. In the British Isles it is a 

 partial migrant ; some birds leave the south coast in autumn, 

 others wander from their summer haunts but do not leave 

 the country, and a few remain all winter in their nesting area. 

 As a bird of passage it is noticed in spring. 



The Stonechat is a local bird, though well distributed through- 

 out ; it frequents commons, rough waste land where furze and 

 bramble grow freely amidst the rocky outcrops, is partial to the 



