51 



THE WHINCHAT. 



Pratincola ruhetra (L.). 



The Whiucliat apparently arrived almost entirely on the 

 eastern half o£ the south coast of England, from Kent to 

 Dorset, whence it spread gradually to its usual haunts. 



The earliest stragglers were noticed in Kent and Dorset 

 on the 26th and 29th of March. The first immigration, 

 however, which was a very small one, took place between 

 the 2nd and 4th of April in Hampshire^ Kent and Suffolk. 

 With the exception of single individuals which reached 

 Devonshire on the 6th and Lancashire on the 10th, these 

 arrivals do not seem to have dispersed, but to have remained 

 in the coastal counties. Another very small band arrived on 

 the 11th of April, and stragglers appeared in N. Wales, 

 Leicester, Staffordshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire. The 

 commencement of the main arrival was first noticed in 

 Dorset and Kent on the 17th and 18th ; at first it came 

 in slowly, and it was not until the 25th and 26th that the 

 records from Wales and Northampton showed a substantial 

 increase in the numbers. By the 1st of May the Whinchat 

 had become generally distributed ; but the immigration 

 continued throughout the week, and, the weather and moon 

 being favourable, specimens were procured at the Kent and 

 Hampshire lights. By the 7th of May the majority of the 

 birds had arrived, but on the 14th another small immigratory 

 movement was noted in Hampshire, and was followed on the 

 15th by an increase in Wales, Lancashire, and Yorkshire. 

 In the eastern counties the species had already begun to 

 nest and a full clutch of eggs was recorded on the 16th from 

 Berkshire. 



There may possibly have been a further immigration about 



