22 STONECHAT. 



the tiny stalk with his weight. The Whinchat and 

 the Stonechat are both about the same size. 



The upper parts of its body are pale brown, the 

 throat and the breast are fawn colour, and the wings 

 brown and white. 



The nest is placed in the gorse bushes a few inches 

 off the ground, or more often on the ground itself, 

 sheltered by the bush. It is sometimes built too in 

 the meadows among the thick tufts of grass. It is 

 made of grass, mosses and roots, and lined with hair. 

 The eggs, five or six, are of a greenish-blue colour, 

 rather pointed at the ends, finely marked with minute 

 brownish-red spots. 



STONECHAT. 



PRATINCOLA RUBICOLA. 

 Family Passerid^, Sub-family Turdin^. Genus Pratin- 



COLA. 



Stone Chatter — Stone Clink — Moor Titling — Stonechack — 

 Blackcap. 



The Stonechat is perhaps the handsomest of those 

 birds which remain with us throughout the year.* In 

 its habits and the places it frequents, it is very much 

 like the Whinchat. It has the same love for flitting 

 from bush to bush, perching every now and then for 

 a minute on the highest spray or stalk it can find, its 

 little tail constantly moving up and down, as it 

 " chacks" away to its mate somewhere close at hand. 

 It is however nowhere as common as the Whinchat, 



* One would expect from its name that it loved to settle on 

 some rock or old stone wall and warble out its song, but it 

 does nothing of the kind. 



