205 
a partial migrant, some remaining throughout the winter, braving 
the cohl even of the most severe seasons. Much the larger portion, 
however, of those visiting us, or bred here, invariably leave our 
shores in the autumn to return again in the spring. 
In north-east Lincolnshire the stonechat, as a resident, is com- 
paratively a rare bird, local, and nesting only in a few suitable 
localities. Rather lato in the autumn, during the first fortnight in 
October, we frequently find them numerously scattered in our north- 
east marshes and along the coast; very favourite localities of this 
season are the low “marram’’ covered sand dunes on the Lincoln- 
shire and llolderness coast; the long promontory of Spurn is also 
another well-known haunt, where I have found them in October in 
great abundance. 
Their numbers at this season vary greatly year by year. In some 
years congregating quite thickly along our east coast, in others they 
are comparatively scarce. By the middle of November the stoneehats 
have taken their departure: any we afterwards see during the winter 
months ave an occasional bird, haunting the slieepfolds on the 
turnips, where they manage, along with pied wagtails and some 
pipits, to pick up a subsistence from various eggs and larva} of 
insects concealed in the dry soil beneath the turnips. When the 
bulbs are drawn and pitched into heaps preparatory to cutting, 
these small birds search most pertinaciously amongst the heaped 
roots for insect remains. With these exceptions we never see any- 
thing more of the stonechat till early in the following spring, 
when in the last week in February and throughout March* several 
(invariably almost singly or at the most in pairs) make their appear- 
ance ; and may then generally be found in the more enclosed and 
sheltered parts of the district, perched on low clipped fences, the 
banks of drains, or turf walls near the coast. The stonechat appears 
to be a very early immigrant in the spring, preceding every other 
summer visitant 
I have always hitherto considered these autumn assemblies of 
the stonechat on our coast, as birds on the move southward from 
some more northern station ; and the more scattered birds seen in 
the early spring, if not actual immigrants from the continent, partial 
migrants on the move from one district of England to another. In 
* In this district in 1S77 I saw the first stonechat as early as the 24th of 
February. (March 1st, 1877).— J. C. 
