8o British Birds, 



habits. Flitting about from bush to bush, and seat- 

 ing himself pertly on the top spray, there he sits and 

 " chats " or " clinks " till the passenger comes too near, 

 and then off he flies, to perch again a few yards 

 further and repeat the same performance. The nest, 

 sometimes very neat and well-constructed, of moss and 

 benty grass, and lined with hair, feathers, fine grass- 

 stalks, etc., is often quite on the ground and with no 

 bush near ; sometimes at the foot of a low bush, or in 

 the bush itself, but very near the ground. The eggs 

 are five or six, of a pale blue ground, very sparingly 

 freckled with dull reddish brown, and chiefly near 

 the large end. The nest is often hard to find, and 

 especially when built among longish herbage, or in or 

 near a whin-bush. — Fig. IQ, plate 11. 



WHIN-CHAT— (5^;rzV^/« rubetrd). 



Grass -chat, Furze-chat. — Many of the birds last- 

 named pass the winter in England ; but only a few of 

 the Whin-chats. Tliis is never so abundant a species 

 as the last, and though with some similar habits, it 

 has no urgent inclination to force us to notice it by 

 the incessant repetition of its note. The nest strongly 

 resembles that of the Stone-chat. It is also usually 

 placed on the ground, and is fully as hard to find as 

 that bird's. The eggs, five or six of them, are of a 

 uniform bluish green, very slightly speckled or 

 marked with dull red. — Fig. VI , plate II. 



WHEAT-EAR— (5«;fzW^ cenanthe). 

 Fallow-chat, White-rump, White-tail, Fallow-sm.ick, 

 Fallow-finch, Chacker, Chackbird, Clodhopper, with 



