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THE STONECHAT. 

 (Pratincola rubicola.) 



THIS lively little bird that is the male bird has the 

 following characteristics : head, throat, nape, and back 

 black. A conspicuous white patch on the wing-coverts. 

 Under wing-coverts and axillaries black and white. Bill 

 small and awl-shaped, legs and feet black. 



It hides its nest so well, that it is difficult to find. It 

 is usually built on the ground in a slight dip, so that 

 the heads of the fledglings are level with the surface of 

 the ground, and thus it merges into its surroundings. 

 Five bluish grey eggs, speckled with brown, are usually 

 found in the nest. 



The Stonechat is a very pleasant bird, that seems, 

 wherever it may be, to live by itself. It always sits 

 on the topmost part of a bush, and thence looks 

 attentively on to the ground, yet is quite conscious 

 of all the insects and chafers flying about, for it is an 

 alert captor. Sometimes it looks as if it were turning a 

 summersault in the air, which is always a sign that it 

 has disturbed a beetle in its flight and snapped him up. 



This little Black-throat is more a bird of the foothills, 

 where it loves the rocky dips where a few bushes render 

 these not quite bare. It will suddenly appear on the 

 top of a bush, the point of a moth-mullein or a nettle 

 always on a high perch gives one look round, swallows 

 an insect, and disappears as if by magic. Soon after 

 it will appear in another spot, and go through the same 

 performance. Meanwhile it wags its little tail, spread- 



