The Stonechat. 37 



Faiuily— TURD ID. ^ Subfamily— TURDIN^. 



The Stonechat. 



Pratincola rubicola, Linn. 



INHABITS the central and milder parts of Northern Europe and southward 

 to Asia Minor, Palestine and North Africa; specimens have also been obtained 



south of Senegal. 



In Great Britain the Stonechat is resident and breeds locally in every county 

 of Great Britain and Ireland, as also in the Hebrides ; in the Orkney and Shetland 

 Islands it is known to occur, but not to breed. 



The Stonechat is a very handsome little bird, especially when in breeding 

 plumage. The male has the whole of the feathers of the upper surface (excepting 

 those of the upper tail-coverts which are white) dull black fringed with tawny 

 brown ; the head from a line above the eye and the throat velvety-black ; wings 

 and tail blackish brown ; smaller wing-coverts, bases of inner secondaries and sides 

 of neck broadl}^ white ; under parts tawny-rufous, deepest on the breast and sides, 

 almost white at centre of chest, but shading into buff on abdomen ; bill and feet 

 ebony-black, iris dark brown. The female is altogether duller in colouring ; the 

 white wing-patch smaller, the tail-coverts reddish brown, the throat mottled with 

 black. In winter the white on the sides of the neck becomes mottled with tawny, 

 the secondaries have broad tawn}^ borders and either whitish or tawn}' tips, the 

 tail-feathers are also broadly bordered with buff; the ear coverts, chin and throat 

 feathers are also slightly tipped on the fringe with tawny or white, and the 

 upper part of the white neck-patch is mottled with tawu}'. The nestling is spotted 

 above and below, and does not show the dark throat, or white patches of the 

 adult bird ; but, in other respects, resembles it in its winter plumage. 



Though so different from the Whinchat in pattern, this species resembles it 

 greatly in form and in its habits ; it frequents similar localities — wild heathery 

 moorland, gorse-clad commons, uncultivated broken ground, dotted with bush and 

 bramble, with here and there loose stones, or bedded rocks moss-grown and 

 venerable : in such haunts the Stonechat breeds, and there he may be seen poised 

 on the topmost spray of the flowering furze with ever restless tail, anon darting 

 from bush to bush with undulating flight, or hovering moth-like to seize some 



