Fre 
STONECHAT. 52 
word ‘ouistrata;’ and Gmelin to that which he has assigned 
in consequence as its specific name. 
The song of the Stonechat is of little power, but soft, low, 
and sweet. It is uttered either from the top of some bush, 
or when hovering for a short space at a low elevation above 
it. It is seldom heard before the beginning of April, or after 
the middle of June, but sometimes so early as the middle 
of February. The author of the ‘British Song Birds’ registers 
a notion that the name of ‘Wheatear’ was intended for the 
present species, as indicative of the ‘noise it makes while 
hopping about the stones!’ Yarrell says it imitates the notes 
of other birds. The parents are very clamorous when they 
are engaged with their young, shewing great anxiety to 
draw any strangers from the nest, and uttering incessantly 
their short snapping note. 
These birds pair in March, and commence building towards 
the end of that month. 
The nest, which is large and ise put together, and 
composed of moss, dry grass, and fibrous roots, or heath, 
lined with hair and feathers, and sometimes with wool, is 
placed among the grass, or other herbage, at the bottom of 
a furze, or other bush, or in the bush itself, as also in heather, 
and even, occasionally, in some neighbouring hedge, adjoining 
the open ground which the bird frequents. It is exceedingly 
difficult to find, on account of its situation in the middle of 
a cluster of whin bushes—such not admitting of the most 
easy access, the female also sitting very close, and, when off 
the nest, being very watchful of all your movements, hopping 
quickly from bush to bush, and disappearing suddenly by 
retreat into the cover. 
The eggs, generally five or six in number, rarely seven, 
are of a pale greyish or greenish blue colour, the larger end 
minutely speckled with dull reddish brown. ‘They are laid 
the middle or latter end of April, sometimes in the earher 
part of that month; and have been known so late as the 
12th. of July—perhaps a second brood. 
The young are usually hatched by about the middle of 
May, and are abroad by’ the end of that month, or the 
beginning of June. They have been seen coming out from 
under a bush to be fed by the old ones, and then immedi- 
ately retirmg to their concealment. 
Male; weight, five drachms; length, five inches and a quarter, 
to five and a half; bill, black; iris, dark brown; bristles are 
