86 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



The Stonechat is amther bird whose non-migratory 

 habits we are apt to view with surprise, because the 

 cause of them is as yet unknown to us. Now the Stone- 

 chat, as far as we are aware, differs in none of its re- 

 quirements from its congeners the Wheatear and Whin- 

 chat, yet the two last mentioned species leave our 

 country annually every autumn, to spend their winter in 

 the south. Yet the little Stonechat remains and braves 

 all the rigours of a northern winter. I see them on the 

 moors when the snow is lying deep, or skipping about 

 in the furze coverts in December, quite as nimbly as at 

 the summer solstice. Truly indeed have we much to 

 learn in the habits of birds, and particularly so with 

 regard to their migrations, ard the cause* of them. 



Still keeping to the moorland, the observer will often 

 see perched on the rugged walls a sprightly bird about 

 the size of a lark, when in motion the white parts of its 

 plumage showing out very plainly : this is the Wheatear, 

 known also as the Fallow Chat. Besides inhabiting the 

 moors, we also see him on the wild upland fallows near 

 them : commons and stone quarries, too, if in wild 

 districts, are also frequented by him, as also are the open 

 lands near the sea coast. As I have previously stated, 

 the Wheatear is a migratory species. He arrives here 

 the third week in April, and soon after is seen in pairs, 



Birds of the Chat tribe are for the most part terrestrial 

 in their habits, but this is not because the birds are in- 

 capable of perching. The Wheatear, or Chats in general, 

 can perch just as well as the agile Titmouse, and this is 

 borne out in the little Whinchat, a bird more often seen, 

 and whose habits can be far more readily studied, than 

 the above two birds of the wilderness. The real matter 

 of fact is this : if trees were as plentiful in their wild 

 haunts as in the haunts of the Whinchat, we should see 



