KEARTONS' NATURE PICTURES 



MALE STOXECHAT. 



Nest - build- 

 ing is com- 

 menced in 

 April or May, 

 the structure 

 being well hid- 

 den at the foot 

 of a gorse 

 bush amongst 

 heather, or 

 tangled grass 

 growing round 

 brambles. It 

 is very diffi- 

 cult to find unless the female is sitting 

 hard, and can be watched on to her 

 eggs. Otherwise a pair of birds may 

 be kept under observation for hours 

 in vain. 



The eggs number from four to six, 

 of a pale bluish green ground colour, 

 closely mottled round the larger end 

 with reddish brown spots. Occasionally 

 these are very faint and I have seen 

 specimens from which they were absent 

 altogether. Eggs may occasionally be 

 found as late as the end of June, which 



seems to support the contention of some 

 ornithologists that the species is double- 

 brooded. 



If a Stonechat's nest be kept under 

 observation for a few hours it will be 

 seen that the male helps the female to 

 feed the young ones, but that he works 

 with considerable irregularity. Some- 

 times he will remain away from the 

 nest for an hour at a stretch, and at 

 others he will visit it with insects as 

 many as thirty times in the space of 

 sixty minutes. Like the male mem- 

 bers of many other species, he is guilty 

 of the cowardice of passing over any 

 food he may have collected for his 

 offspring to his mate for conveyance 

 to the nest, if there should be any- 

 thing near it calculated to make him 

 nervous. 



Although the Stonechat is a migra- 

 tory bird in Continental countries, where 

 it breeds, it stays with us during the 

 whole round of the year, and I have 

 seen it more numerously in the Isle of 

 Man during the winter than in any other 

 part of the United Kingdom. 



