b6 



BBITISH BIBDS 



Fia. 23.— Stonechat. ^ natural size. 



Stonechat. 



Pratincola rubicola. 



Head, throat, bill, and 

 legs black ; sides of neck 

 near the wing, tertial 

 wing- coverts, and rump 

 white ; breast bright 

 chestnut-red, paling to 

 white on the belly; fea- 

 thers of the back, wings, 

 and tail black with red- 

 dish brown edges. Fe- 

 male : head and upper 

 parts dusky brown, the 

 feathers edged with yel- 

 lowish red ; throat black 

 with smaU whitish and 

 reddish spots; less white 

 in the wings and tail ; 

 the red of the breast dull. Length, five and a quarter inches. 



In his colouring and appearance, and to some extent in habits, 

 the small stonechat is unlike any other bird. His strongly con- 

 trasted tints — black and white, and brown and chestnut-red — make 

 him as conspicuous to the eye as the goldfinch or yeUowhammer, and 

 thus produce much the same effect as brilliancy of colour. The 

 effect is increased by the custom the bird has of always perching on 

 the topmost spray of a furze-bush on the open commons which it 

 inhabits. Perched thus conspicuously on the summit, he sits erect 

 and motionless, a small feathered harlequin, or like a painted 

 image of a bird. But his disposition is a restless one • in a few 

 moments he drops to the ground to pick up some small insect he has 

 spied, or else dashes into the air after a passing fly or gnat, and 

 then returns to his stand, or flits to another bush some yards away, 

 where he reappears on its top, sitting erect and motionless as 

 before. He is always anxious in the presence of a human being, 

 flying restlessly from bush to bush, incessantly uttering his low, 

 complaining note, which has a sound like that produced by striking 



