THE BIRD-LIFE OF LONDON 



railings or on the topmost spray of an evergreen bush, 

 occasionally fluttering into the air in chase of an insect, or 

 hopping about the gravel paths. 



The Whinchat is a late migrant, not reaching its 

 summer haunts in the Metropolitan area before the 

 second half of April. Its favourite resorts here are 

 grass-meadows, heaths, and the patches of gorse and broom 

 on commons, railway banks, and similar open places. It 

 leaves them for the south in September. This is another 

 easily recognised species, from its persistent habit of perch- 

 ing on some tall weed in the meadows or on the top of 

 a bush or upon a telegraph wire and monotonously uttering 

 a double note of u-tac , which is frequently accompanied 

 by a flick of the wings and tail. When approached it flits 

 off in an uneven manner to another stem or bush, and again 

 repeats its cry. Its food chiefly consists of tiny worms, 

 insects, and larvae, but in late summer it varies its diet 

 with soft corn. The male utters a short and unassuming 

 little song, often whilst in the air, to which both sexes 

 frequently resort in chase of insects. The Whinchat is 

 seen in pairs soon after its arrival, and the eggs are laid 

 in May or early June. The nest is either made amongst 

 the meadow grass, amongst the herbage on some bank, 

 or more frequently amongst the tangled growth under 

 whin or broom bushes. It is a neatly made, cup-like 

 structure, loosely put together, formed outwardly of 

 dry grass and a little moss, and lined with fine roots and 

 horsehair. The five or six eggs are blue, dusted with 

 rusty brown freckles, chiefly on the larger end. The 

 young and their parents remain in family parties for the 

 rest of the summer, migrating apparently in company when 

 the moult is completed. Few nests are more difficult to 

 find, and the old birds are excessively wary throughout the 

 breeding season. Hay-meadows are a favourite resort in 

 late summer, and later on turnip-fields. I have also noted 

 a more arboreal tendency after the young are reared. 



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