THE WHINCHAT. 



{Saxicola rubetra.) 



^^ ELDOM appearing before the end of the 

 ^^ first week in April, the Whinchat arrives 

 much later than the Wheatear, and is much 

 less diffused than that species. By the end of 

 September it has again left the country, and I 

 have never met with an instance of its remain- 

 ing in England during the winter months. On 

 several occasions correspondents have forwarded 

 to me in winter a bird which they believed to be 

 the Whinchat, but which invariably proved to 



