39 



THE WHINCHAT. 



JPratincola ruhetra (L.). 



The records of this species being somewhat scanty it is 

 impossible to trace its immigrations with the same certainty 

 as is the case when observations are more numerous. The 

 Whinchat seldom reaches this country before the middle of 

 April, and, in consequence, we have not taken into con- 

 sideration the records prior to the 10th of April, as they 

 probably refer to that nearly allied species — the Stonechat 



The first immigration was noted from Hampshire on the 

 18th of April, and by the 21st and 22nd the birds had 

 apparently spread to Yorkshire and Lancashire. On the 

 23rd a few individuals appeared in Sufl^blk, having probably 

 arrived on the south coast a day or two previously. 



The secoiul immigration arrived on the S.E. coast between 

 Suffolk and Hampshire on the 27th and 28th of April. 

 During the next ten days they spread to (Cambridgeshire, 

 Surrey, Worcester, Shropshire, and Durham. 



A third immigration seems to have arrived on the S.E. 

 coast between Norfolk and Hampshire on the 6th and 7th 

 of May, and during the next few days a general increase 

 was noted in the west and north. By the 13th birds were 

 recorded as nesting in Surrey, and about that date they seem 

 to have settled down in their breeding-haunts throughout 

 the country. 



K fourth immigration may have taken place in Hampshire 

 and Kent on the 22nd and 24th, but the records are too 

 incomplete to enable it to be traced. 



