64 OUR MIGRANT BIRDS 



Plumage. — Upper parts bluish grey. Forehead and 

 streak over eyes white. Lores and ear-coverts black, 

 under parts white, tinged with buff. Wings almost 

 black. Rump white ; two middle tail-feathers black, 

 rest white, tipped with black. Bill and legs black. 

 Length 6 in. Female, upper parts yellowish brown ; 

 ear-coverts dark brown, superciliary streak dingy white. 

 Young, spotted above and below, and wing and tail- 

 feathers margined with buff. 



Language. — Song, a short and somewhat insignificant 

 warble. It has some powers of mimicry. Call-note, 

 a sharp metallic " chack " or " tack," like striking 

 two pebbles smartly together. 



Habits. — Always conspicuous, for it readily takes to 

 wing, when the white rump at once attracts the eye. 

 Fond of perching on any little proclivity or point of 

 vantage on the rock-strewn and broken land which it 

 always affects ; it is constantly flitting about from one 

 rock to another, seldom alights on a bush. Insects 

 captured on the wing, though food is usually taken on 

 the ground, where it runs rapidly, staying its progress 

 at intervals, and flirting its tail up and down. 



Food. — Insects largely, and their larvae ; spiders, 

 worms, grubs, and small beetles. 



Nest. — May onwards. Two broods. 



Site. — In holes in the ground, often in disused rabbit- 

 burrow, amongst heaps of stones, in stone walls, in 

 banks, under clod of turf, &c., and always well con- 

 cealed. 



Materials. — Dry grass, roots, moss, wool and hair, 

 loosely put together. 



^^^^' — Five, six, or more. Pale greenish blue ; 

 sometimes faintly freckled at the large end with rusty 

 or purple. 



