THE WHINCHAT: 313 
favourite haunts are in the pastures and the hay-meadows ; whilst far up 
the mountain-sides on the broad stretches of heather it is common in 
summer. The Whinchat is also abundant on the commons and rough 
open wastes clothed with stunted bushes, briars, and brambles. In the 
south of England it reaches its favourite haunts by the middle of April, 
the northern districts being tenanted by these birds a little later, some- 
times not until the beginning of May. In some few instances the 
Whinchat has been known to winter in England; but the authentic 
occurrences of the bird at this season are so few that it must be considered 
a strictly migratory bird, leaving us for the south in the third week 
in September. It will most probably arrest your attention as it either 
sits on the very topmost spray of some bush or heath-tuft or clings firmly 
to a stout grass-stem or dock-plant, swaying gracefully up and down 
by the weight of the bird upon it. There it sits quietly, mcessantly 
fanning its tail with graceful motion, and occasionally uttering its 
monotonous call-note of w-tac u-tac-tac-tac-tac, a note which has gained 
for the bird its local name of ‘“‘ Utick ”’ in many country districts. As you 
approach the little creature seems to awaken to its danger, and flits rapidly 
off, in undulating fitful flight, to another stem of herbage or topmost twig, 
where it sits and watches you as before. Although the Whinchat so often 
chooses a perch near the ground, it by no means shuns the trees, and, 
especially towards the end of summer, it is seen with its young brood 
high up amongst the branches. The bird does not show that partiality for 
walls and rocks which is so marked a feature of the Redstart or Wheat- 
ear. In the pastoral districts the Whinchat, directly after its arrival, 
frequents the fallows which are being worked for the turnip-crops, and on 
these places is found almost continuously until the neighbouring pastures 
afford it sufficient shelter. The Whinchats never roost in trees, but 
always on the ground. When they first arrive we may find them at night 
on the fallows, but for the remainder of the season grass-fields and turnip- 
lands are frequented. In the wilder parts of its haunts the Whinchat 
roosts amongst the heath and the tangled undergrowth of gorse-covert 
and brake. Another remarkable trait in the character of this bird is its 
activity in the dusk of the evening, a time probably when some insect 
that forms its favourite food is abundant; and its well-known call-notes 
may be heard long after the birds themselves are concealed from view by 
the falling shadows of night. 
Like the Redstart and the Wheatear the Whinchat seeks much of its 
food in the air. It takes its stand on some favourite perch and watches 
the clouds of insects sailing dreamily around. Ever and anon it launches 
into the air to catch a fly or a gnat. The food of the Whinchat is 
almost exclusively confined to insects and small worms obtained amongst 
