142 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Family TURDID^E. Genus PRATINCOLA. 



Sub-family TURD2N&. 



WHINCHAT. 



PRATINCOLA RUBETRA (Linnaus). 

 Single Brooded. Laying season, May and June. 



BRITISH BREEDING AREA: The Whinchat is fairly 

 well distributed throughout Great Britain, but becomes 

 rarer and more local in Scotland (although it certainly 

 breeds as far north as Caithness and on some of the 

 Hebrides) and in the south-west peninsula of England. 

 In Ireland it is even more local and scarce, but its 

 breeding area is by no means accurately denned. 



BREEDING HABITS: The Whinchat arrives in the 

 southern portions of our islands during the latter half 

 of April, but is nearly a fortnight later in more northern 

 districts. The principal breeding-haunts of this species 

 are hay-meadows, commons, gorse coverts, and moor- 

 lands. A week or so after its arrival the Whinchat may 

 be observed in pairs. It is not in any way a social 

 species during the breeding season, and each pair keeps 

 exclusively to one particular haunt until the young can 

 fly. The nest is built in a variety of situations, according 

 to the accommodation at hand. In the hay-meadows 

 it is almost invariably placed on the ground, amongst 

 the tall mowing-grass, at varying distances from the 

 hedge-sides ; elsewhere it is frequently at the foot of a 

 gorse bush, or amongst heather or tall, rank herbage. 

 A small cavity is scraped out when the nest is made on 

 the ground. The home of the Whinchat is loosely put 

 together, composed of dry grass and a little moss, and 

 lined with fine roots and horsehair. The parent birds 

 are excessively wary at the nest, flitting about from 



