178 OUR NATIVE SONGSTEES. 



Whinchat* (Saxicola ruhetra), quite forsakes our 

 island during tlie winter, seeking a warmer clime, 

 before the bleak winds have blown away the furze 

 blossoms, or borne the red leaf from the bramble 

 on the downs. The bilberry and blackberry are 

 ripening before it goes, and it pecks at them in 

 their red state very voraciously, so that one of its 

 common country names is the Blackberry eater. 

 From its favourite haunts being the fiu-zy com- 

 mons, it is also called the Furze-chat and Furze- 

 wren, and it is the Grand Traquet of the French. 

 The manners and mode of flight of this bird are 

 very similar to those of the stonechat, as it flits 

 about in an equally restless manner, from one 

 bush to another, uttering continually its clicking 

 cry of " u-tick, u-tick." Its song is sweet, though 

 the notes are very rapid, and it is often sung 

 while the bird hovers over the furze-bush, or sits 



* The Whinchat is nearly five inches in length. Wliole upper 

 parts mottled with light and dark brown, the feathers having 

 dark centres; a conspicuous streak of white over each eye reach- 

 ing from the beak to the nape ; the tail-feathers white at their 

 base; a white spot at the edge of the wing; under parts buff, 

 becoming fawn-colour on the breiist, where it is separated from 

 the dark-brown of the cheeks and neck by a margin of white ; 

 beak and feet black. 



