208 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The male bird is quickly apprehensive of danger, and in nine 

 cases out of ten espies the intruder long before the latter espies 

 him. It is too late to acquire much information about the site 

 of the nest when your first intimation of the presence of this 

 pretty migrant is a sight of him on some commanding perch. As 

 in the case of the Wheatear, the Goldfinch, and the Golden-crested 

 Wren, I have never discovered the male Whinchat actively par- 

 ticipating in the building of the nest, and I am quite positive that 

 not a few of the smaller nests which we come across in this country 

 in the course of the summer are solely the work of the females. 



One word more. Is the Whinchat a mimic ? It certainly 

 possesses a note at times not unlike that of a Partridge, though, 

 of course, on a modified scale. 



The Stonechat (Pratincola rubicola). 



The Stonechat affects those wild uplands and barren heaths 

 which are studded with a luxuriant growth of furze and other 

 bushes of a corresponding height, and here it secures conceal- 

 ment for its nest and young, and a supply of food, more or less, all 

 the year round. I have only twice met with this bird in Leicester- 

 shire, and that was during the winter of 1886, and the autumn of 

 1898. I should mention, perhaps, that my home for over ten years 

 was at Ashlands in that county, between two and three miles from 

 my native village, and in the winter I have referred to a Stone- 

 chat used to come and perch on the temporary railings which 

 protected a new cricket-ground that was being made near to the 

 house. None of the workmen engaged in levelling the turf had 

 the least idea what the bird was, though they showed a little dis- 

 cernment when sending me a message to the effect that " a funny 

 kind of Flycatcher " was their constant companion. Certainly, 

 the Stonechat's method of taking its food on the wing very much 

 resembles that of the bird above mentioned, and the fact of its 

 presence near to Ashlands in mid-winter tended to confirm 

 Harley's statement to the effect that at that season " it left its 

 ordinary habitat of the whin-covered moor and wild for the 

 cultivated field and hedgerow." What warranty he had, however, 

 for saying that the nest was occasionally lodged on the horizontal 

 bough of a Scotch fir, I know not. 



I am presumptuous enough to think, after careful observa- 

 tion, that the nomenclature of each of the three species, viz. the 



