sea, one may frequently come across the snow-bunting, 

 which, on the wing, will at once attract attention by the large 

 areas of white displayed in the wing and tail. 



The redstart, one of our summer visitors, is a bird which 

 can never be mistaken. A sight of the russet-red tail alone 

 suffices. But the cock has the further glory of a mantle of 

 grey, a black head and russet under parts. He is fond of 

 country rich in old timber, or hillsides, where stone walls 

 attract him. His kinsman, the wheatear, returns to us in 

 the early spring ; to give an added charm to our bare hill- 

 sides, and warrens, sea-cliffs, sand-dunes, and waste places. 

 If you see a small bird flying low over the ground, with a 

 white rump, and black wings, you may know that the wheat- 

 ear is before you. That deUghtful, restless little bird, the 

 stonechat, is a near relation of the wheatear. He, too, is 

 fond of waste places, and heaths ; more especially such as will 

 provide him with plenty of furze bushes, or Ung, on the top- 

 most twigs of which he loves to perch, flitting his tail and 

 uttering his fussy Uttle notes, " hweet-chat, hweet-chat." 

 On the wing you may tell him by his conspicuous white 

 wing-patch, and the broad blaze of white on his neck, set off 

 by a jet-black head. The female and young lack the bright 

 chestnut on the breast. The stonechat' s cousin, the whin- 

 chat, may be found in similar situations, but he is of a more 

 roving disposition, and may be found also in lowland pasture 



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