THROUGH THE YEAR 173 



this action, though the house sparrow has something 

 rather shrikey in its movements. 



Another manner of the stonechat is its whizzy 

 little low flights from bush to bush or clod to clod. 

 It sweeps along only just above the ground, and, at 

 a little distance, has often looked to me like some 

 large moth. Then its quick, restless foot action 

 is delightful something like a hop, skip, and run. 



Last, the stonechat's tail flick. This is not so 

 pronounced as the wagtail's or the redstart's, but 

 the short, almost stumpy tail of a stonechat is 

 rarely still for long. Many of our smaller birds have 

 a constant action of the tail whilst they are perched 

 and whilst they are moving about among the twigs 

 in search of food. The nightingale, all the wagtails, 

 the redstart, the wheat ear, the redbreast, the black- 

 bird, the shrike, move their tails constantly. 

 Even the buntings, which are more sedentary than 

 most small English birds, and will sit sluggish- 

 looking for many minutes on tree twig or clod of 

 earth, have a small action of the kind. But with 

 the stonechat the tail flick is incessant. It gives one 

 the idea of a most alert and volatile little bird. 



The seacoast stonechats affect through winter the 

 ground which the rock pipits affect, but many pairs 

 have far more taste for human neighbourhoods than 

 have the pipits. The rock pipit is an aloof bird. 

 He shuns human society. The stonechats are to 

 be seen in the same lonely spots as the rock pipits, 

 but they are also to be seen all day close to 

 houses and gardens by the beach. In some 



