ON MOORS, COMMONS, AND HEATHS. 161 



of several interesting species peculiar to them, or 

 nearly so. Beautiful little bits of wild nature do 

 these places present us with. Their prickly 

 thickets of gorse and bramble, their rolling ex- 

 panse of bracken or turf, studded with birch- 

 trees, guelder rose and mountain ash, crabs and 

 blackthorns, are all the chosen haunts of bird life. 

 True, they are not so wild as the northern moors, 

 not so bleak or so breezy ; but they are full of 

 charm, perhaps rendered all the sweeter and 

 attractive by the woodland elements which relieve 

 their broad expanse and endow them with a 

 luxuriant beauty the uplands never aspire to. 



Each part of the heaths and commons has its 

 own particular feathered denizens. In the gorse 

 coverts, for instance, w^e are pretty sure to meet 

 with the STONECHAT (Pratincola rubicolti), a widely 

 little bird whose black head and chestnut breast dL 

 render him easy to identify as he clings to the 

 prickly branches and repeats his monotonous notes 

 of wee-chic > wee-chic, chic-chic-chic, or chants his 

 simple rambling song. Few nests are more diffi- 

 cult to find than the Stonechat's, and no birds 

 will deceive you more if you will let them in 

 decoying you from their treasure. It is placed 

 well down at the roots of some gorse - bush, 

 amongst the rank grass and weeds, and is made 

 of dry grass and moss, and lined with hair and 

 feathers. The eggs are four or five in number, 

 pale blue in colour, with a few brown spots mostly 

 at the larger end. The Stonechat, unlike its first 

 cousin, the Whinchat, is a resident in this country, 

 and clings to the coverts all through the year. 

 It feeds on insects and their larvae, especially 

 beetles, and on small worms and even seeds. 



M 



