THE STONECHAT AND WHINCHAT 409 



empty bills, every now and again pausing to hover for a moment 

 over their real family, and utter a warning cry. They kept up this 

 ruse for about half an hour, but at last the anxiety of the female 

 overcame caution and she slipped back to her brood through the 

 undergrowth of bracken and briar, by secret and winding paths, in 

 a manner that would have misled me as to the whereabouts of 

 the nest, had I not already been in possession of the secret. 1 The 

 male also soon gave up all pretence at concealment, and alighting 

 boldly on a twig above the nest, settled down to the business of 

 feeding the now hungry brood with great energy. There were two 

 tall points of gorse above the nest, and almost invariably the male 

 alighted on one, and the female on the other when bringing food, and 

 thence dropped down to the young ones ; having fed them, they 

 flew up on to the twigs again, where they paused a moment before 

 flying away. 2 



In spite of my presence, for I made no effort at concealment, the 

 parents came on an average twice a minute, with a varied assortment 

 of dainties, consisting of gnats, flies, succulent spiders and caterpillars. 

 On more than one occasion an unfortunate and squirming young 

 lizard was brought by the cock bird for the young stonechats' meal. 

 Mr. Farren, in an article recording his experiences in photographing 

 a pair of stonechats, noted that the female always brought a spider 

 as her contribution towards the menu, and the male a caterpillar ; but 

 my pair provided a much more liberal diet for their family. 



As I settled down to my work of photographing at 4.30 A.M., and 

 remained for various periods of from four to eight hours several days 

 in succession, I could not help thinking how insupportable life would 

 become if there were no birds to rid us of insect and other pests ! 

 Sometimes I moved away and watched the parent birds through my 

 field glasses. Then they returned three and sometimes four times a 

 minute, often with several insects in one mouthful ; so that stonechats 



1 The ruse here described was also noted in the case of the whiiichat by J. B. Bailly, in his 

 Ornithologie de la Savoie, vol. ii. 1853. 2 For similar facts see p. 389. 



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