SAXICOLIN^. FRUTICICOLA. 
135 
with, distinct oblorxg blackish-brown spots ; a yellowish-white 
band over the eye ; a patch on the wing, a longitudinal band 
on each side of the neck, and the basal part of the tail, white ; 
the lower parts light red anteriorly, paler behind. Female 
with the dark spots larger, the white markings less conspicu- 
ous, that on the wing occupying only the tips of some of the 
coverts, the lower parts of a duller and paler tint. Young 
with the upper parts dusky, each feather marked with a cen- 
tral, oblong, yellowish-grey spot; the lower parts light greyish- 
brown, the feathers on the fore neck margined with dusky. 
By the abrasion of the feathers, as the summer advances, the 
upper parts in the adults become darker, the wdngs of a more 
uniform but lighter brown, the fore neck and breast of a pale 
red, and the white markings of a purer tint. 
Male, 5 ^, 9^, 2^^, Female, 5^, 
The Whinchat leaves us in September and returns in April. 
It is generally dispersed over the country, occurring here and 
there in pastures, chiefly in hilly and upland parts, but also in 
low tracts overgrown with small shrubs. It flits on wing by 
short starts from place to place, is most frequently seen on 
the top twig of a bush, whence it issues in pursuit of insects, 
when stationed is continually jerking its body and tail, at 
every movement uttering a short sharp note resembling the 
syllable chat, or tick, whence its common name of Whin- 
chat. It has a short, modulated, cheerful song, which it per- 
forms either when perched or when fluttering in the air over 
a bush. The nest is concealed among shrubs and herbage, and 
is composed of grasses, flbrous roots, and moss, with a lining 
of finer fibres and hair. The eggs, four or five, are of a uni- 
form light greyish-blue, sometimes marked with brownish-red 
dots, but generally unspotted, eight and a half twelfths long, 
six and a half twelfths in breadth. It breeds twice in the 
season. 
Whinchat. Furzechat. 
Motacilla Bubetra, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 332. — Saxicola Bu- 
betra, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. i. 244. — Fruticicola Bubetra, 
Whin Bushchat, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, ii. 273. 
72 . Fruticicola Bubicola. Black-headed Bushchat. 
Male with the head and throat black, the breast brownish- 
red, the sides of the neck, a spot on the wings, and the basal 
part of the upper tail-coverts, white, the upper parts brownish- 
black, the feathers edged with brownish-red. Female with 
the head and upper parts streaked with brownish-black and 
