INSESSOEES. 41 



hesitation, at length found courage to enter. In a 

 few seconds she issued from the crevice, and was 

 then apparently satisfied, for she uttered quite a 

 different kind of note, and joined the male bird in a 

 short flight, returning again to perch upon the wall, 

 where I then left them. How delighted Gilbert 

 White would have been with such a display of 

 " cTTo^yyj," as he has termed this natural love of 

 animals for their young.* 



Whinchat, Saxicola rubetra. A common summer 

 visitant, much more numerous than the last. The 

 Stonechat is generally found among heath and 

 furze, which would account for its comparative 

 scarcity in this county, but the Whinchat is common 

 in enclosures as well as on wastes. In some seasons 

 it is particularly numerous. In 1861 we had an 

 extraordinary visitation of Whinchats, but although 

 the birds themselves were so plentiful, but few nests 

 were found, so carefully were they concealed in the 

 long grass. A favourite situation for their nests is the 

 banks of the railway between Kenton and Harrow, 

 where they build in numbers. 



Gilbert White says,t " Whinchats and Stonechats 

 stay with us the ivliole year." I have never found 

 this to be the case. I think it probable that a few 

 pairs of Stonechats may remain in the winter, as 



* See Letter XIV. to Hon. D. Barrington. 

 t Id., Letter XXXIX. 



E 8 



