28 WHINCHAT. 



on the ground, or at most a few inches above it, among the stems 

 of a small bush, or in coarse herbage and thick meadow-grass. 

 It is a loose structure of dry grass and moss, with a lining of finer 

 materials ; the eggs, usually 6 in number, being greenish-blue, 

 sometimes dotted or zoned with rust-colour: measurements, 72 by 

 •6 in. Two broods are reared in the season. The call note is a 

 sharp ii-tick^ and the bird has also an agreeable song, uttered on the 

 wing or while sitting on some low branch, accompanied by a 

 fanning movement of the tail. Although, like the Stonechat, it 

 frequents heaths and commons, the two species are seldom abundant 

 in the same neighbourhood ; and the Whinchat exhibits a partiality 

 for pastures, whence the bird's local name of ' Grass-chat.' Its 

 food consists of beetles, flies, and other insects — often sought for 

 late in the evening ; worms, especially the wire-worm, and small 

 mollusks. It roosts on the ground. 



The adult male has the lores, ear- coverts and cheeks dark brown ; 

 a clear white streak above the eye ; crown and upper parts mottled 

 with about equal proportions of sandy-buff and dark brown, more 

 rufous on tail-coverts ; base of tail white (except the two central 

 feathers, which are dark brown), terminal-half dark brown, tipped 

 and margined with buff; wing brown, the upper part showing a con- 

 spicuous white patch contrasted against a nearly black outer portion 

 of the coverts ; a smaller white patch on spurious wing ; bastard 

 primary smaller than in the Stonechat ; under parts buff, turning to 

 bright fawn-colour on the breast and throat ; chin white, with a streak 

 of the same running below the blackish cheeks to the sides of the 

 neck. Bill black (stouter than in the Stonechat), legs and feet 

 black. Length 5-25 in. ; wing to the end of the 3rd and longest 

 primary 3 in. 



The female is duller in colour ; the speculum smaller ; the eye- 

 streak buff ; the upper breast slightly spotted. The young have the 

 feathers margined with rufous and bufT; the breast much more spotted 

 than in the female, which otherwise they resemble. By September 

 the young males have the wing-patches well defined. 



In autumn the Whinchat assumes a duller plumage, leading to 

 confusion with the Stonechat ; and to this, perhaps, may be ascribed 

 the records of the occurrence of the former in winter in the British 

 Islands. In spring, according to Meves and other observers, it 

 not only loses the paler tips of the feathers by abrasion, but has a 

 distinct moult : an exception to the rule among the Turdince. White 

 and pied varieties of this bird have been obtained. 



