46 



THE WHINCHAT. 



Pratincola ruhetra (L.). 



The Whinchat probably arrived along the whole of the south 

 coast, though not recorded from Cornwall, but it appeared 

 first and in largest numbers to the east of Dorsetshire. A 

 bird which apparently remained throughout the winter was 

 recorded from Yorkshire on the 3rd of January, and early 

 stragglers were reported from Wiltshire and Berkshire on 

 the 13th and 23rd of March, and from Bedfordshire, 

 Worcestershire, Essex, and Suffolk between the 4th and 10th 

 of April. 



The first immigration was small and appears to have 

 arrived at both the eastern and western ends of the south 

 coast about the 14th of April, and to have been followed by a 

 rather larger one about the 20th. By the 24th Whinchars 

 were thinly scattered over a great part of England and 

 Wales, though they seem to have been rather more numerous, 

 and to have extended farther north on the eastern than on 

 the western side of the kingdom. 



A third immigration, which does not appear to have been 

 of large dimensions, arrived along the whole of the south coast 

 between the 23rd and 25th of April, and was apparently ab- 

 sorbed in filling up gaps in the territory already occupied. 



The fourth, which was of rather larger dimensions and was 

 also recorded from the Channel Islands, reached our shores 

 on the 28th of April, and seems to have contained the main 

 body of the breeding-birds for the western counties, Wales, 

 and Scotland. 



Further movements were noticed at the Channel Islands 

 on the 7th, 10th and 13th of May, and immigrants certainly 

 arrived in Hampshire en the latter date, while there were 



