THE WHINCHAT 



PRATINCOLA RUBETRA 



LOCAL names in surrounding counties : " Furzechat " 

 (Essex). 



STATUS IN BRITISH AVIFAUNA : A widely distributed 

 summer visitor, becoming rarer and more local in the 

 south-west of England and in Ireland. 



RADIAL DISTRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 

 PAUL'S : Here again we have a species that with charm- 

 ing persistency returns to old-time haunts that are fast 

 being transformed. I know of several localities hay- 

 meadows close to Wormwood Scrubbs and Park Royal 

 in which the dread notice-board proclaims an " eligible 

 building-site," but to which the Whinchat returns each 

 summer, and will doubtless do so until these selfsame 

 meadows are converted into the hollow pretences of 

 suburban gardens. 



The Whinchat, notwithstanding almost yearly changes, 

 still continues to visit most of the outlying portions 

 of the Metropolitan area wherever it can find suitable 

 haunts, such as meadows and rough, furze-grown 

 ground. It is perhaps most local in the Essex portion 

 of the fifteen-mile radius. It breeds at Wimbledon, 

 Streatham, Dulwich, Norwood, and Croydon, and in 

 many intervening places ; whilst westwards and north- 

 wards it may be traced over the Richmond, Osterley, 

 Hanwell, Twyford, Sudbury, Wembley, Harrow, Enfield, 

 and Epping areas. In the more outlying districts, where 

 meadows, golf links, and open spaces are commoner, the 

 bird, of course, is met with in increasing numbers. Inci- 

 dentally I may mention that on April 26, 1905, I observed 

 a female Whinchat flitting about the tulips in the orna- 

 mental gardens of the Victoria Memorial opposite 

 Buckingham Palace. It frequently perched on the iron 



S3 



