British Birds. 
365 
will do much to modify this view. The passage of the Stone - 
chat across the North Sea is looked upon as an event of 
regular occurence at Heligoland. There is also a considerable 
local movement of Stonechats in our islands every spring, the 
result of which is that in some districts, where the species 
has not nested for years, one will now and again fmd several 
pairs in local proximity. Nevertheless, in many districts there 
are certain favoured spots — often of only a few acres in 
extent — where Stonechats may be seen every day of the year. 
In the great bleak wilderness of Dartmoor, amidst the solitude 
of the eternal " Tors," 1500 feet above sea-level, where no 
living thing is to be seen save the Buzzard wheeling overhead 
and a few half -starved moor ponies, where the winter storms 
are of such severity that on many days even the hardy moor- 
man will not venture to leave his homestead, I know several 
such spots where you may be certain of seeing Stonechats 
throughout the winter unless the ground is covered with snow. 
We may take it therefore that the Stonechat is a very 
hardy species, one of the earliest to nest, and crossing the North 
Sea during the first week of March — and yet, by a strange 
paradox, its northward range does not extend beyond the 
extreme south of Sweden, whereas the Whinchat — a sun wor- 
shipper, which spends the winter in Central Africa and does 
not venture to show itself here before May -day — nests even 
within the Artie circle I 
One day last February, I came across a nice pair of 
Stonechats on one of the foot-hills of Dartmoor and, having 
a net-trap with me, I soon made a capture of the female. 
I could find no better accommodation for my captive than a 
small box containing a puncture-repair outfit, so she had 
to make the best of it for the time lieing amongst the 
"patches," the "solution" and the French chalk. A week 
later I found the same old male Stonechat in the same place 
but, whereas I had expected to see a disconsolate widower, 
I found instead a gallant bridegroom for he had lost no time 
in providing himself with another spouse. Again the net- 
trap was requisitioned and again it was the female that suc- 
cumbed to the temptation of a mealworm. Did I hear some- 
one say that the feminine sex is always the most greedy? 
A week later there he was again with yet another partner 
