WHINCHAT. 57 



It has been met with by Robert Gray, Esq., of Southcroft, 

 Govan, Glasgow, near Dunbar, in the end of December; also 

 by Mr. H. Barlow, of Cambridge, in the mild winter of 

 1833, and one was found dead by the Rev. Robert Holds- 

 worth, of Brixham, at the entrance of the River Dart, in 

 Devonshire, during a very severe frost, on January the 20th., 

 1829: one has also been seen in Norfolk in the winter. In 

 the neighbourhood of Southampton, Mr. William D. Balshaw 

 writes in 'The Naturalist,' old series, volume ii., page 234, 

 that some remain throughout the year, and that White of 

 Selborne, in his Natural History of that place, Letter xxv., 

 to the Hon. Daines Barrington, makes a similar assertion; 

 Bewick does so also. 



The Whinchat is found in a variety of situations, not only 

 on 'the wildest waste sae black and bare' and those which 

 are uncultivated, where the thorny shrub which has been 

 appropriated to its name blooms and blossoms, but also 

 among pasture fields, on whose hedges it may be seen perched 

 and swaying itself about, mindful of the approach of danger 

 at any point, or turning its head aside to catch a glimpse of 

 any passing insect. 



The Whinchat arrives in different parts of the country 

 from about the middle to the end of April, and in backward 

 seasons not until the beginning of May. It departs again 

 at different periods in October, or the beginning of November, 

 according to the state of the season. 



It is generally easy of approach, particularly when it has 

 a nest, shewing much anxiety for its young, and endeavouring 

 to draw away any intruder, by flitting close before him; 

 returning to its place by one or two more lengthened nights, 

 when the desired object has been gained. It almost invariably 

 perches on the topmost or outermost spray of the hedge or 

 bush: it may be kept in confinement, and is esteemed as an 

 article of food for the table. 



It sometimes shuffles its wings contemporaneously with the 

 motion of the tail, which it has in common with the allied 

 species. If disturbed and followed, it drops near the ground, 

 along which it skims, until it alights again on some other 

 bush. 



The flight of these birds is light and nimble, and the 

 tail is sometimes fanned. In hovering over a bush the wings 

 are rapidly fluttered. 



They live on flies, beetles, and other insects, slugs, cater- 



