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BRITISH BIRDS OF THE ROBIN KIND. 



of these birds have already been described. Their nests are placed upon 

 the ground, amongst the grass, or at the bottom of a furze or other bush, 

 very artfully concealed, the entrance not being from above, but often 

 by a long and winding path made through the adjoining herbage ; they 

 are composed chiefly of moss, and the dried stalks of grass, and lined with 

 horsehair and grass of a finer texture, and sometimes feathers. Their 

 song, as in most of the Rubeculincz, is interrupted and broken, and the 

 notes of the whinchat closely resemble those of the common redstart*, 

 ( RubeculA arborea). As in that species, it frequently pours forth from 

 the top of a high tree ; a habit which I have never noticed in the only 

 British species of the neighbouring genus Saxicola. The Rubetrce, 

 when reared from the nest, are remarkable for their talent for mocking, 

 and even in the wild state I have heard them imitate the notes of other 

 birds very correctly. Le Vaillant mentions an African wheatear (Ira- 

 quet i?nitatenr) that, in its wild state, imitates the notes of every bird 

 in its vicinity ; but it certainly is not a very usual habit among the wild 

 birds. The faculty, however, may be more or less observed in most of 

 the RubecuUnce. A very curious fact, in the Rubetrce, is the amazing 

 predominancy of females among the young birds ; this was observed by 

 the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert ; and out of five young whinchats and 

 four stonechats which I have this season reared from the nest, I have 

 obtained but one male of each species. In the furze -warbler, the white- 

 throat, and some other small birds, there is a similar preponderance of 

 the other sex. I may remark here, that the young cock stonechats may 

 readily be distinguished from the hens, in their nestling plumage, by a 

 large white spot on the wing, which, in the female birds, is of a light 

 brown. 



The chats, like the rest of the RubecuUnce, subsist on earth-worms, 

 and insects of all kinds : sometimes, in the manner of a flycatcher, 

 taking their prey on the wing ; they feed likewise greedily on small 

 snails, and on some kinds of berries ; they are particularly fond of 

 beetles, and perched, as is their usual habit, on the topmost twig of 

 a bush, they can espy one crawling among the grass at a considerable 

 distance. Wilson observed the same habits in the American blue 

 bird (Sialia Wilsonii, Swainson), and in a note which Sir W. Jardine 

 has appended to his (Wilson's) admirable description of that species, 



* They are, however, to be distinguished. Each stave of the redstart's song 

 usually begins with a long drawn, plaintive note, resembling fi/are. The whin- 

 chat's notes commence generally with a sort of tit tit. — E. B. 



