250 SYLVIAD.E. 



Wliincliat and the Stonechat which must be mentioned. A 

 considerable portion of the Stonechats pass the winter in 

 Britain ; but the Whinchats, almost to a bird, depart in 

 autumn to go farther south. The similarity in various points 

 between these two birds has induced a partial belief that the 

 Whinchats, like the Stonechats, remained here during the 

 winter. Pennant thought they did not migrate, only shifted 

 their quarters ; but I am not aware of more than two au- 

 thentic instances of the Whinchat being seen here in winter. 

 Mr. Neville Wood, in his British Song Birds, quotes the 

 following communication : — " My correspondent, Mr. H. 

 Barlow of Cambridge, informs me that during the remarkably 

 mild winter of 1833, he observed the Whinchat hopping 

 about near som.e furze-brakes in his neighbourhood. The 

 bird was seen on the 15th of January and on the 20th of 

 February, but only on those two occasions, though the com- 

 mon was visited every clear day in those two months." 

 Among various notes in reference to Birds and Fishes, sent 

 me by the Rev. Robert Holdsworth of Brixham, is the fol- 

 lowing : — " In a path near my residence, situated at the 

 entrance of the river Dart, in one of the warmest spots in 

 England, I found a Whinchat dead during a very severe frost, 

 January 20th, 1829. Wind N. E." 



The Whinchat makes its appearance in the southern and 

 south-eastern parts of this country about the middle of April, 

 and arrives in the northern coimties by the end of that 

 month : it does not, however, begin to build so soon as the 

 Stonechat, but is usually about a fortnight later. Its song 

 is agreeable, generally given from an elevated position on a 

 furze-bush, or while hovering in the air over it. Like most 

 song bird«, it is prone to imitate the notes of others ; and the 

 Whinchat appears to have been an especial favourite Avith 

 Mr. Sweet, who was well known for his partiality to, and 

 successful treatment of, the Warblers in confinement, and has 



