BIRDS 



93 



The Isabelline Wheatear is new to Western Europe. Its 

 range eastward and southward is extensive, including Somali- 

 land and Nubia, Palestine, Asia Minor, Greece, the Caucasus, 

 Afghanistan, and the N.W. Provinces of India ; in Kussia, 

 Mr. Seebohm received eggs of this Chat from Sarepta ; he has 

 also two skins from Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. It visits the region 

 of Lake Baikal on migration, breeds commonly in Dauria, and 

 was obtained by Pere David in the neighbourhood of Pekin. 

 It has been recorded from Madagascar/ 



It only remains to add that Prejevalsky pronounced this Chat 

 to be an exquisite songster. 



WHINCHAT. 



Pratincola rubetra (L. ). 



The sweet song of this common summer visitant may be heard 

 in most of the less elevated districts of our faunal region, espe- 

 cially where extensive meadow lands afford plenty of rough 

 cover. I have met it numerously near Kendal and Windermere; it 

 abounds in one or two localities near Carlisle, and is very plentiful 

 near Drumburgh, but becomes rather more scarce in the west of 

 Cumberland. The Whinchat is one of those species that often 

 betray their young by their fussy agitation. In August, when 

 migration has set in, the immature birds chiefly appear singly, 

 as though they preferred to perform a part at least of their 

 journey southward in solitude. At that season I have some- 

 times noticed the Whinchat actively foraging for insects in the 

 bean fields. 



STONECHAT. 



Pratincola rubicola (L. ). 



Dr. Gough did not consider the Stonechat a common bird at 

 Kendal. It has always appeared to me to be of tolerably 

 general occurrence on our moorlands, at an elevation of a few 

 hundred feet above sea-level. It occurs all along our coast-line 

 from Drumburgh to Skinburness, and westward to Maryport, 

 Whitehaven, and Walney Island. 



