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6 



frequents open commons and heaths, pastures, and other open localities, very frequently affecting 

 Hilly portions of the country. It is restless and active, flits from bush to bush, generally perching 

 on the topmost twig, where it sits, moving its body and jerking its tail, every now and then 

 uttering its sharp short note, from which its name of " Chat " is derived. Macgillivray, writing 

 on its song and habits, says that " it is when perched on a twig, and often when fluttering in 

 the air over it, that it performs its short, modulated, cheerful song, which resembles that of the 

 White-rumped Stone-Chat, but is inferior to it in mellowness and compass. In this respect the 

 Bush-Chats resemble the White-throated Warbler; and in fact, both in form and habits, a 

 gradation may easily be traced through the different species of the extensive family of 

 Cantatores. The Whin Bush-Chat is generally shy, so that it is not easily shot, unless in 

 the vicinity of its nest, from which it endeavours in various ways to decoy an intruder. If 

 wounded it hides among the bushes, and is very difficult to be traced. 



"When one approaches the nest they evince great anxiety; but at first keep at some 

 distance, perched on the top twigs of the bushes, and at short intervals emit a mellow plaintive 

 note, followed by several short notes resembling the ticking of a clock, or that produced by 

 striking two pebbles together, and at the same time jerk out their tail and flap their wings. 

 When the plaintive note alone is uttered, they do not move the body or wings ; but for every 

 two ticks there is a jerk of the tail, accompained by a slight elevation of the wings. The notes 

 may be represented by the syllables, peep, tick, tick, tick, tick. Sometimes a single tick only is 

 emitted, frequently four or five, rarely six. If you go nearer the nest they advance, redouble 

 their cries, flit about from bush to bush, and sometimes hover in a fluttering manner at the 

 height of a few feet." 



The Whin-Chat feeds chiefly on insects of various sorts, caterpillars, small worms, and, 

 according to some authors, on berries. Macgillivray says that he never found any thing but the 

 remains of coleopterous insects in the stomachs of those he examined. 



With us in England it breeds twice in the season, the first brood being hatched late in 

 May, the second in August. The nest is usually placed on the ground, carefully concealed 

 amongst bushes or grass, and is constructed of grass, bents, and fibrous roots, sometimes inter- 

 mixed with a little moss, and lined with fine bents and, according to Macgillivray, hairs of 

 various kinds. The nest is rather large and bulky. The eggs, from four to six in number, are 

 pale dull bluish green, marked with small indistinct reddish brown spots which are often 

 collected round the larger end, or else almost unspotted greenish blue. One clutch in my 

 collection are very clear in colour, almost as blue as those of the Hedge-Sparrow. In size they 

 vary from f § by f^- to f {} by f § inch. Mr. Collett informs me that, curiously enough, in Norway 

 this species usually lays seven, and but rarely so few as six eggs — which is the more noteworthy, 

 as most species deposit fewer eggs in the far northern portions of Europe than they do in the 

 central and southern countries. 



The specimens figured are, on the one Plate the adult male in summer and in winter 

 plumage, and on the other the adult female with the nestling, these being the birds described. 



