4G 
BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIRE AKD RUTLAND. 
end of 1882, and Mr. H. S. Davenport shot a fine male at Cold Overton on 
2nd Oct., 1884. INIr. W. Whitaker, of Wistow Grange, obligingly wrote me that 
he had, on 20th April, 188G, killed a Eing-Onzel at that place. Pinchen tells 
me that he believes this was a female. The Museum has acquired a fine female 
specimen, shot, with a catapult, out of a hawthorn-hedge at Kibworth, by INIaster 
Stuart B. Macaulay, Gtb Jan., 1888. I saw, at Pinchen’s, a nice specimen belonging 
to I\Ir. W. Whitaker, shot by his keeper, Geary, at Markfield, 27th April, 1888. 
In Rutland, as Lord Gainsborough remarks, it is migratory, appearing in 
spring and autumn, but does not remain to breed. Mr. W. J. Horn says it is 
rarely seen, but that he “ saw one on Seaton Common — probably migrating — on 
April 10th, 1886.” IMr. X. Lucas Calcraft, of Gautby, Lincolnshire, who 
formerly resided in Rutland, states that they are not common in the latter 
county, but that “ a few pairs are seen most springs.” C. Masters shewed me 
a wing of a bird, which I recognised as of this species, shot by him at Burley 
about the middle of Aug., 1888. 
WHKATEAR. Saxicola omanthe (Linmeus). 
“ Fallow-chat,” “ Gosshatch,” the female and young, according to 
Arthur B. Evans, D.I). (‘Leicestershire Proverbs’). 
A summer migrant, sparingly distributed, and occasionally breeding. — Harley 
remarked that the first to arrive are males, which haunt the plough-lands for a 
few days, and then apparently betake themselves to the desolate hills of Bradgate 
and the rocky summits of Bardon and IMarkfield, and that, in such places, they 
are to be found the summer through. I have seen the bird at Aylestone more 
than once, and IMr. W. A. Evans shot two in autumnal plumage, in the Abbey 
IMeadow, on 27th Sept., 1883; and another, a fine male, also in autumnal 
plumage, at “North End,” Leicester, on 9th Oct., 1885. 
Regarding its breeding, Harley wrote that he once met with a nest in the 
vicinity of Bardon. In turning aside to examine the fronds of some plants that 
were growing in great luxuriance on a ditch-bank, surmounted by an irregular 
stone fence, composed of boulders and large blocks of loose granite, or porphyry, 
he disturbed a female Wheatear, whose nest had been snugly built between the 
chinks of two large stones, guarded on all sides by large masses of the same 
materials. The nest was bulky, and loosely made. It was mainly composed of 
fibrous twigs, green moss, tender leaves of dry grass, lined with hair, wool, and 
some small feathers, and contained six eggs. The female Wheatear endeavoured, 
by feigning lameness, to draw his attention from the nest. Mr. H. S. Davenport 
writes : — “ In May, 1875, I found a Wheatear’s nest with five eggs down a 
drain-pipe on the turnpike road at >Skeffington.” 
In Rutland. — A summer migrant, sparingly distributed, and occasionally 
breeding. — IMr. Horn does not appear to have found the nest, but states that it is 
said to breed in Barrowden Great Field, near Seaton. 
