WHINCHAT 



GRASSCHAT FURZECHAT. 



PLATE CXI 1 1. 



Pratincola rubetra, 

 Saxicola rubetra, . 



DRESSER. 



NEWTON. 



THE Whinchat is a summer migrant which breeds 

 generally over Great Britain. 



The nest is placed in the lower part of a gorse bush, a 

 few inches above the ground, where the thorns and stalks 

 are dying off, so that the materials of the nest assimilate 

 in appearance to the situation in which it is placed, and it 

 is thus the rather screened from observation. Frequently 

 it is placed in the grass at the foot of a thick furze bush. 

 Where there are no gorse bushes, it is placed among rough 

 grass in a pasture field, or in a meadow. Mr. Henry 

 Stowe, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, took one near 

 Brackley in Northamptonshire, built so near the edge of a 

 pond that the nest was quite wet. It is loosely built of 

 stalks of grass and moss, and is lined with finer portions 

 of the former ; and occasionally some hair or leaves : it 

 measures six inches across, and two and a half internally. 

 It is very carefully concealed, and extremely difficult to 



find, as the bird approaches it stealthily. 



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