1058 Birds. 



cult to be found. This spring, a pair built in an inverted garden pot, 

 which was placed over a tender annual in my garden, and the female 

 laid four greenish-blue eggs. The birds came in and went out by the 

 hole in the end of the pot. But a cat, having observed them, over- 

 turned the pot in her attempt to catch one, and so put to flight the 

 unlucky pair, before the period of their incubation had been completed. 



Stonechat or Moor Tit, Saxicola rubicola. In this district it is a 

 local species, and somewhat rare ; keeping out of the cultivated spots, 

 and inhabiting alone the bare moors and commons. Its cry is pe- 

 culiar. 



Whinchat or Grasschat, Saxicola rubetra. Here a bird of passage, 

 and very common in the summer. The male is handsome. The Eng- 

 lish name, as usually written, is whinchai, but this, I conceive, is very 

 probably an error for windchat : because the bird perches generally 

 on the top of a thorn hedge or high plant, as if to catch the wind, and 

 then utters a monotonous and chattering note. Whin, in the north, 

 is synonymous with furze or gorse of the south, of England. 



Burrow-chat, Wheatear or White-rump, Saxicola (Enanthe. Abun- 

 dant on the sand links along our coast, where it arrives early in the 

 spring, and breeds in the deserted rabbit-holes. It also frequents the 

 river-embankment near the Tees. It is delicious eating, although in 

 this neighbourhood it is neglected as a luxury for the table. 



Sedge Warbler, Salicaria Phragmitis. The sedge-bird is common 

 in our low and marshy grounds during summer. It is indefatigable 

 in singing, both by day and oftentimes by night, and is likewise famed 

 for its powers of imitating other song-birds. 



Black-cap, Curruca atricapilla. This sombre-coloured species is 

 the best and most melodious of our northern songsters, as the night- 

 ingale is unknown here. Arriving about the time of the redstart, it is 

 not unfrequent in the spring in our gardens and plantations, wherein 

 it nidificates. 



It is, I believe, an established fact, that most of the songsters re- 

 quire considerable warmth and dryness of climate. Some birds, when 

 kept in cages, will not sing unless they are placed in a very warm si- 

 tuation. The chief singing birds in the more northern countries, such 

 as Norway and South Lapland, are the fieldfare, redwing, and some 

 other Merulidae ; but are there any of the true songsters, or Aedonidae, 

 within the Arctic circle ? The nightingale does not come further than 

 the immediate vicinity of the city of York (see Yarrell's Birds, i. 278), 

 in the northern division of England, by reason of the comparative 

 coldness of the climate : nor does it generally visit Cornwall, nor cer- 



