PRATINCOLA. 311 
Genus PRATINCOLA. 
The Bushchats were included by Bechstein in his genus Sazicola, but 
were removed by Koch when he subdivided this genus and established the 
genus Pratincola for their reception, in 1816, in his ‘ System der baier- 
ischen Zoologie,’ p. 190. Koch did not indicate any type; but he placed 
the Whinchat first upon his list; and this bird has, by common consent, 
been regarded as such. 
The Bushchats are a small group of birds allied in some respects to the 
Chats, and in others to the Flycatchers. The bill is shorter and broader 
than that of the Chats, but not so broad as that of the Flycatchers. The 
tarsus is comparatively short, and the plumage much more fluffy and loose. 
The rictal bristles are large and well developed. 
Sharpe, in his ‘Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum’ (iv. 
p- 178), enumerates thirteen species which are distributed over the Pale- 
arctic, Aithiopian, and Oriental Regions, but absent from the Australian 
Region. Three species are found in Europe, and the occurrence of a 
fourth is somewhat doubtful. One is a resident and one a regular summer 
migrant to the British Islands. 
The Bushchats are more arboreal in their habits than the Chats, fre- 
quenting bushes, low trees, and tall herbage. Like the Flycatchers, they 
obtain much of their food on the wing. They feed principauy on imsects 
and worms. They are possessed of considerable powers of song. They 
build loosely made nests, open, and composed of grasses, hairs, feathers, 
moss, &c., placing them amongst tall herbage and under bushes. Their 
eggs, from four to six in number, vary from pale to dark blue, sparingly 
_ spotted with reddish brown, 
