STONECHAT 
17 
STONECHAT. 
{Pratincola rubicola,) 
Storieclink, Blackcap. — The Stonechat is another 
bird of furzy heaths and commons, but does not 
generally extend its range, as the Whinchat does, 
to the rough, grassy fields and banks. It is found, 
as a rule, on wastes and commons where there is a 
plentiful supply of heather, and fond though it is of 
furze-bushes, it seems rarely to haunt places where 
there is furze alone. As a species, it is with us all 
the year, though it shifts its quarters a good deal 
both within the limits of the country and across 
the sea. The cock is a very brightly and oddly- 
coloured little bird, and has to an even greater 
degree than the Whinchat the habit of posting him- 
self (in a very upright position) on conspicuous 
jutting sprays, from which he flings himself singing 
into the air, to tumble in a light-headed kind of way 
down to another point of outlook. He has a bright 
reddish breast, with a conspicuous black patch on 
the throat and face, and between the two a broad 
white mark on each side of the neck, as well as 
another smaller one on each wing. The hen is so 
much duller in all her colours, though her general 
pattern is much the same, that her resemblance to 
him is more in her flight and habits than in her 
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