28



Mr. W. E. Teschemaker.



The first two hen Whinchats I received this spring had been

“ meated off ” on one of those dreadful compounds sometimes most

quaintly termed “insectivorous (?) mixtures,” so I opened the window

and let them fly. I then obtained four more which were forwarded

immediately after capture and reached me in good order. After a

couple of days’ close observation I was able to pick out a breeding'

hen with tolerable certainty ; I also retained another, nearly as

promising, as a second string and released the others. With the

majority of the monogamous species the association of two females

with one male would mean failure, but there are exceptions and

previous experience led me to think that this species would prove one

of the latter. Changing' the scenery in a small aviary is never a very

difficult matter and I converted the 16ft. by 16ft. space in which the

Sprossers bred in 1911 from a Bamboo-swamp into a Common in

next to no time with a load of gorse and three large sacks full of turf

and heather from Dartmoor. The cemented basin was emptied, the

swamp allowed to dry and, Hey Presto, the thing was done. The

gorse proved to be a superfluous bit of scenery for the Whinchats

•carefully avoided it; moreover so did the Stonechats, when they

nested, and, when I add that one of the latter when trapped on

Dartmoor had a very sore foot, I expect our members will agree

with me that the one and only reason why both these species perch

on gorse in a state of freedom is probably that in their own

particular localities they have nothing much else to perch on.


On the 5th May, just as the long'spring drought was breaking

up, I turned out the Whinchats with three Finch-larks and the former

seemed much pleased with their surroundings ; they revelled in the

spring showers, inspected the Common and perched on the broken

heads of some of the bamboos exactly as one might imagine they had

recently perched on the swaying stalks of the Guinea-corn in the

Gambia. The Finch-larks on the other hand led a somewhat

chequered existence and my impression is that they did not enjoy the

past summer at all. I tried to explain to them that everyone cannot

expect to be happy in this world of contrasts and that the same Fate,

which had made tire Whinchats King's and Queens, had made them

the Pawns in the game—but they did not seem convinced. Upon

this peaceful scene there descended, on the night of the 14th May,



