STONECHAT. 53 



t 



word 'ouistrata;' and Grmelin to that which he has assigned 

 in consequence as its specific name. 



The song of the Stonechat is of little power, but soft, low, 

 and sweet. It is uttered either from the top of some bush, 

 or when hovering for a short space at a low elevation above 

 it. It is seldom heard before the beginning of April, or after 

 the middle of June, but sometimes so early as the middle 

 of February. The author of the 'British Song Birds' registers 

 a notion that the name of 'Wheatear' was intended for the 

 present species, as indicative of the 'noise it makes while 

 hopping about the stones!' Yarrell says it imitates the notes 

 of other birds. The parents are very clamorous when they 

 are engaged with their young, shewing great anxiety to 

 draw any strangers from the nest, and uttering incessantly 

 their short snapping note. 



These birds pair in March, and commence building towards 

 the end of that month. 



The nest, which is large and loosely put together, and 

 composed of moss, dry grass, and fibrous roots, or heath, 

 lined with hair and feathers, and sometimes with wool, is 

 placed among the grass, or other herbage, at the bottom of 

 a furze, or other bush, or in the bush itself, as also in heather, 

 and even, occasionally, in some neighbouring hedge, adjoining 

 the open ground which the bird frequents. It is exceedingly 

 difficult to find, on account of its situation in the middle of 

 a cluster of whin bushes such not admitting of the most 

 easy access, the female also sitting very close, and, when off 

 the nest, being very watchful of all your movements, hopping 

 quickly from bush to bush, and disappearing suddenly by 

 retreat into the cover. 



The eggs, generally five or six in number, rarely seven, 

 are of a pale greyish or greenish blue colour, the larger end 

 minutely speckled with dull reddish brown. They are laid 

 the middle or latter end of April, sometimes in the earlier 

 part of that month; and have been known so late as the 

 12th. of July perhaps a second brood. 



The young are usually hatched by about the middle of 

 May, and are abroad by the end of that month, or the 

 beginning of June. They have been seen coming out from 

 under a bush to be fed by the old ones, and then immedi- 

 ately retiring to their concealment. 



Male; weight, five drachms; length, five inches and a quarter, 

 to five and a half; bill, black; iris, dark brown; bristles are 



