14+ THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Family TURDID/E. Genus Pratincola. 



Sub-family TURDINyE. 



STONECHAT. 



Pratincola rubicola (^Linnceus). 

 Single Brooded. Laying season, April and May. 



British breeding area : With the exception per- 

 haps of the Orkneys and the Shetlands, St. Kilda, and a 

 few other of the most remote and barren Hebrides, the 

 Stonechat is pretty generally dispersed throughout the 

 British Islands, although somewhat local and fastidious 

 in the choice of a haunt. It is perhaps nowhere so 

 common as the Whinchat, but certainly breeds in England 

 more to the south-west than that species. 



Breeding habits : The Stonechat, although it may 

 be subject to a considerable amount of internal migration, 

 is a resident in the British Islands. Its principal breed- 

 ing-haunts are furze coverts, heaths, commons, and rough, 

 open, rock-strewn ground, studded with low bushes and 

 thickets of briar and bramble, especially near to or 

 adjoining the moors. In South Devon this species 

 habitually frequents osier beds, its young being reared 

 before the willows are much grown. It is probable that 

 the Stonechat pairs for life, although the birds are more 

 often than not met with solitary after the young are 

 reared. The nest is either on the ground or at most a 

 few inches above it, according to the site selected. It 

 is frequently placed at the foot of a gorse bush, amongst 

 heath and other rank herbage, or amongst the long, 

 tangled grass growing round the stumps of the osiers, 

 occasionally on the stump itself, hidden by brambles and 

 other interlaced vegetation. The nest is extremely 

 difficult to find, unless stumbled upon by accident. It is 



