Perching Birds. 
79 
to the basal third. In habits and in the choice of a nesting-place it resembles 
the other species, and the eggs are greenish blue with reddish brown spots. 
Britain, but is more local and rarer in some counties than in others. Its nesting 
range extends east to the Ural Mountains, and it even reaches beyond the Arctic 
Circle. In the South of Europe it is mostly found on migration and breeds only in 
the mountains. The Whinchat belongs to a little group of birds peculiar to the Old 
World, having broader bills and more abundant rictal bristles, in which respect 
they resemble the Flycatchers, and are like the latter birds in their habits. The 
general aspect of the male Whinchat is rufous, with a white wing-patch, formed of the 
white inner median and greater wing coverts ; the tail-feathers are white with a broad 
band of brown on their terminal third ; the sides of the face are black, surmounted by 
a broad white eyebrow ; the cheeks and chin are white and this extends on to the side 
of the neck, skirting the cinnamon-rufous colour of the throat and breast, the rest of 
the under surface of the body being sandy buff. The female is not so brightly coloured 
as the male, the sides of the face being browner, and the rufous on the throat and 
breast not so bright. The flight of the Whinchat is very rapid, as it flits from one 
furze bush to another, and perches invariably on the topmost bough. It frequents 
commons and the slopes of rough hills and downs, and the nest is well concealed, 
being generally placed in the grass under a bush, and approached by a run or small 
tunnel. In the mountains of Norway it nests on the high fjelds, choosing the thickets 
of rough bushes and small birch-trees which may be found on the edges of some of 
the swamps and generally in the vicinity of the hay-fields, where there is an abundance 
of insect food. The hen bird is very seldom seen and it is only by driving her off the 
nest that the latter is 
usually discovered. The 
THE WHINCHAT. 
( Pratincola rubetra.) 
This little bird is a summer visitor to Great Britain, 
arriving early in May from its winter home in West Africa 
and North-east Africa. It nests in all parts of Great 
eggs are greenish-blue, 
with minute specks of 
reddish-brown. 
Though of similar 
habits to the Whin- 
chat, the Stonechat is 
a much darker bird and 
can be distinguished 
by its black head and 
the white patch on the 
THE STONECHAT. 
(Pratincola rubicola.) 
The Whinchat. 
The Stonechat. 
