296 INSECT! VOILE. 



eggs are bluish-green, without any spots, and they do not 

 exceed six. 



The range of the whin-chat extends at least as far as the 

 furzy and broom-clad slopes, which are particularly abundant 

 on the secondary hills to the south of the Grampians ; but it 

 does not appear generally, or in any great number, to cross 

 those mountains. It may, however, be found in the eastern 

 parts of the county of Ross, especially along the northern 

 shore of the Cromarty Firth, where the climate is peculiarly 

 genial for the latitude, the lower grounds rich, insects very 

 abundant, and the country accessible across Aberdeen and 

 Moray, without any long flights over the sea or high moun- 

 tains. The whole of that line from the sea to the central 

 mountains, is well worthy of the attention of ornithologists. 



It is probable that the whin-chat retires, in the latter parc 

 of the season, from all its more northerly breeding-places ; 

 but that a few pass the winter in Kent and Sussex, even in 

 places where they rarely breed in the summer as a passage 

 from the central parts of Scotland to the south of England is 

 as great a change, both in climate and latitude, as one from 

 the central parts of England to the other side of the channel; 

 and though birds of powerful wing and long and rapid flight 

 can migrate from hemisphere to hemisphere, it is reasonable 

 to suppose that birds of comparatively weak wings, like the 

 chats, have their migrations shorter ; and that those which 

 go far to the north in summer, do not go so far south in 

 winter. . 



The whin-chat is not so compact or thickly feathered on 

 the neck and shoulders as the stone-chat, but is intermediate 

 between that and the warblers. The colours are not so boldly 

 contrasted : in the male, the head and ear-coverts are dusky 

 brown ; a line over the -eye, the chin, a line down each side 

 of the neck, the bars of the quills and tail-feathers, and the 

 crest, white ; the rest of the upper part blackish-brown ; the 



