SAXICOLINJE. FRUTICICOLA. 135 



with distinct oblong blackish-brown spots ; a yellowish-white 

 band over the eye ; a patch on the wing, a longitudinal band 

 on each side of the neck, and the basal part of the tail, white ; 

 the lower parts light red anteriorly, paler behind. Female 

 with the dark spots larger, the white markings less conspicu- 

 ous, that on the wing occupying only the tips of some of the 

 coverts, the lower parts of a duller and paler tint. Young 

 with the upper parts dusky, each feather marked with a cen- 

 tral, oblong, yellowish-grey spot; the lower parts light greyish- 

 brown, the feathers on the fore neck margined with dusky. 

 By the abrasion of the feathers, as the summer advances, the 

 upper parts in the adults become darker, the wings of a more 

 uniform but lighter brown, the fore neck and breast of a pale 

 red, and the white markings of a purer tint. 



Male, 51 9J, 2H, &, **, A, iV Female, 5j, 9 T ,. 



The Whinchat leaves us in September and returns in April. 

 It is generally dispersed over the country, occurring here and 

 there in pastures, chiefly in hilly and upland parts, but also in 

 low tracts overgrown with small shrubs. It nits on wing by 

 short starts from place to place, is most frequently seen on 

 the top twig of a bush, whence it issues in pursuit of insects, 

 when stationed is continually jerking its body and tail, at 

 every movement uttering a short sharp note resembling the 

 syllable chat, or tick, whence its common name of Whin- 

 chat. It has a short, modulated, cheerful song, which it per- 

 forms either when perched or when fluttering in the air over 

 a bush. The nest is concealed among shrubs and herbage, and 

 is composed of grasses, fibrous roots, and moss, with a lining 

 of finer fibres and hair. The eggs, four or five, are of a uni- 

 form light greyish-blue, sometimes marked with brownish-red 

 dots, but generally unspotted, eight and a half twelfths long, 

 six and a half twelfths in breadth. It breeds twice in the 

 season. 



Whinchat. Furzechat. 



Motacilla Rubetra, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 332. Saxicola Ru- 

 betra, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. i. 244. Fruticicola Rubetra, 

 Whin Bushchat, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, ii. 273. 



72. FRUTICICOLA RUBICOLA. BLACK-HEADED BUSHCHAT. 



Male with the head and throat black, the breast brownish- v*. * 

 red, the sides of the neck, a spot on the wings, and the basal 

 part of the upper tail-coverts, white, the upper parts brownish- 

 black, the feathers edged with brownish-red. Female with 

 the head and upper parts streaked with bro wnish-black and 



