3.20 BRITISH BIRDS. 



and thorns are interspersed with heath, are the Stonechat's favourite 

 nesting-places. Its breeding-season commences in the third week of April, 

 sometimes not until the beginning of May, according to the state of the 

 season. The nest is invariably on the ground, and always cunningly 

 concealed. Some recess under a gorse bush, perhaps in the very centre 

 of the covert, or in the herbage growing at the foot of a solitary shrub 

 on the open moor, is the site usually selected. The nest is composed 

 of dry grass and moss, occasionally a few rootlets, and is lined with 

 finer bents, hair, feathers, and sometimes a little wool. Although some- 

 what loosely put together and exhibiting but little skill, the nest of this 

 bird is a pretty one. 



The eggs of the Stonechat are from four to six in number, and vary 

 considerably in the extent and intensity of their spotting. They are pale 

 bluish green in ground-colour, clouded and spotted with reddish brown. 

 In most eggs of this bird the spots are confined for the most part to 

 a broad zone round the larger end, and in some specimens the end is 

 covered completely with them. The pattern is very similar to that of the 

 eggs of the Whinchat, only far more intense and more widely dispersed. 

 Eggs of the Stonechat are sometimes found almost spotless, others are so 

 richly marked as to resemble the eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher; and it will 

 also be noticed that clutches of eggs are seldom uniform in the intensity of 

 their colouring, the last-laid eggs being usually paler. They vary in 

 length from '75 to "65 inch, and in breadth from '59 to '55 inch. The 



o * 



Stonechat shows much anxiety for the safety of her eggs and young ; and, 

 once disturbed, she will tire any, except the most patient observer, by her 

 protective wiles. She flits from bush to bush, occasionally alighting in 

 them, as though about to visit her nest, which, however, is most probably 

 some distance away ; or she sits on some slender spray calling incessantly 

 to her mate on a neighbouring bush, Of all the nests of the smaller birds 

 that of the Stonechat is perhaps the most difficult to discover; and the 

 peculiar motions of the birds themselves make the search still more so. 

 In some cases so closely does the female bird sit upon the nest that the 

 bush which shields her home may be rudely shaken ere she will leave 

 it ; and even when thus scared away she usually prefers to creep and glide 

 through the surrounding cover than to take wing. As the Stonechat 

 ceases to sing by the third week in June, it is very probable that but 

 one brood is reared in the season. The young are tended after they leave 

 the nest, as is the case with the Whinchat; shy little creatures they 

 are, and upon the least alarm retire immediately to the shelter of the 

 nearest cover. 



The male bird has the throat, head, and back black, with the feathers of 

 the upper parts slightly edged with brown ; rump white, each feather 

 with a dark centre and rufous margin ; wings and tail dark brown ; base of 



