PASSERES. ( 41 ) SYLVIIDyE. 



THE WHINCHAT. 



THE FURZE-CHAT, WHIN OR FERN LINTIE, WHIN CLOCHARET. 



Saxicola ruhetra. 



/ have heard 

 Where melancholy Plovers hovering screamed, 

 The Partridge-call, at gloamin s lovely hour. 

 Far der the ridges break the tranquil hush ; 

 And morning Larks ascend with songs of joy. 

 Where erst the Whinchat chirped from stone to stone.- 



Grahame, British Georgics. 



The Whinchat is a regular summer visitor to Berwickshire, 

 generally arriving about the end of April or the beginning 

 of May,^ and departing towards the south in September and 

 October. 



It is found in much the same localities as the Stouechat, 

 which it resembles in its habit of constantly Hitting from 

 the top of one whin bush, tall thistle, or other moorland 

 weed to that of another, or from stone to stone, on the 

 moors. It also inhabits the more cultivated districts, whei'e 

 it may be often seen by road- sides flying along dykes and 



1 Dr. Johnston's MS. Notes. 



- The Poet here refers to the improvement of moorland by i^loughing and 

 cultivation, which, in the opinion of many experienced hill-farmers of the present 

 day, has been carried out to far too great an extent. 



' Mr. Hardy records its arrival in the neighbourhood of Oldcanibus (tn 3rd 

 May 1875 {Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. vii. p. 485) ; 2nd May 1879, at Cockburns- 

 pat'h (ibid. vol. ix. p. 393) ; 7th May 1881 {ibid. p. 555) ; 25th April 1882 (ibid. 

 vol. x. p. 558) ; 6th May 1883, on Earnslaw and Greenside Hills, and on Lowrie's 

 Knowes near Dowlaw (ibid. p. 565). 



