WHINCHAT — STONECHAT. 
47 
M'HINCHAT. Pratincola ruhetra (Linnceus). 
'■ Meadow-cliat,” “ Utick,” as also the following species, from its 
sharp note. 
A summer migrant, generally distributed ; probably double-brooded. — Harley 
mentioned a common habit of this bird, viz., that “ When it is in quest of 
food, it may frequently be observed suspending itself on fluttering wing over 
the grass in the manner of the Windhover, the Kingfisher, and some other 
native birds. It seems to feed on Coleoptera, which it takes on wing.” I 
shot a specimen, apparently a young male, but too much hit in the body 
to identify with certainty, at Saddington Eeservoir, on 20th Oct., 1885, an 
unusually late date. 
Regarding its breeding, Harley recorded that he had “found its nest in 
a low bush or shrub, but in a spot only where aquatic plants were known to 
prevail.” I think perhaps Harley was right in this, if he meant that it builds 
mostly in rough, rushy fields, for at Aylestone, where it is common, I found 
in a rushy field, on 16th June, 1884, a nest with seven young, which, with 
the two old birds, were secured for the IMuseum “ local ” collection. Mr. 
Davenport, on the other hand, writes : — “ Found a nest in June, 1883, in a 
grass field near Loddington, not at all concealed^ containing six eggs.” 
In Rutland, where, according to IMr. Horn, it is locally known as the 
“ Clodhopper,” it is a summer migrant, generally distributed. — 3Ir. Horn writes 
me: — “I noted the first arrival in this neighbourhood on 23rd April, 1886, 
and found a nest containing five eggs slightly incubated on 21st May. Their 
favourite breeding-ground here is in furze-bushes on commons, but I have also 
found the nests amongst the rough grass on a hill-side, and in the bank of 
a dried-up pond ; they also breed in the banks of roadside ditches. When the 
hen is incubating, the male keeps watch, and as soon as any one approaches, 
gives \varning by calling “Utick, utick”; the hen will shortly be seen to join 
him, and frequently leaves her nest so hurriedly as to throw out some of the 
eggs. I discovered two nests last season from seeing the eggs outside. In 
the evening the male appears to go off duty, probably to feed ; for on the 
26th -May, 1886, I reached the favourite nesting place of the Whinchats about 
seven in the evening,— not a Whinchat to be seen. I commenced to beat the 
bushes, and in a very short time had found, through the females leaving the 
nests, twenty-two eggs. Six is the usual number of eggs laid.” 
STONECHAT. Pratincola rxihicola (Linnaeus). 
“ Utick.” (“ Blackcap,” by error.) 
Resident, but sparingly distributed, and, indeed, a much rarer bird than 
the migratory Whinchat — a fact remarked upon by Harley, who considered 
it, in his day, especially rare in winter, and stated that, at that season, it 
