Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/232

206 believe, fairly well established; occasionally the specks are faintly distributed all over the shell. The illustrious Colonel Montagu, who states that the eggs are entirely blue, without a spot, and in this connection compares them with those of the Stonechat, evidently had an experience very different to more modern observers; and it is difficult to reconcile what he so emphatically alleges on the point with the observations that annually come under my own notice, except on the plausible supposition that it is only of late years the brown frecklings have become so pronounced a feature in the appearance of the egg. They have little of the turquoise-blue of the Hedge-Sparrow's eggs about them, and they ought never to be confused with those of the Redstart, and seldom with those of the Stonechat. The variety egg I have often noticed in nests of the Whinchat takes the form of a much lighter ground shade, and the frecklings are generally more emphasized. To assert, however, that this egg is invariably the last one laid is contrary to the fact, for I have known instances when it was the first.

Sometimes when in pursuit of food this species has a pretty habit of poising itself on hovering wing—after the manner of Swallows in hay-fields before the grass has been laid low—and then darting down, snatching its prey, and flitting back as quickly as possible to the top of the bending spray from which it had only a few moments previously gone through the same process. I do not mean that Swallows actually perform all this—only that their suspensory movements in mid air when hawking for insects at a low level over tall standing grass are very similar to the hoverings of the Whinchat. The analogy, however, must not be carried any farther, for as the former species snaps up its prey at about its own level, the latter often indulges in a downward, almost pouncing kind of movement.

The statement that the Whinchat as a species passes the winter in these islands is, of course, entirely apocryphal; it may be that individuals have remained on occasions, but in the majority of cases it is warrantable to suppose that casual observers have mistaken the Stonechat for the bird under discussion. Neither have I any faith in the assertion that this species is double-brooded, and only regret that there is no means of tracing the authority for some of the remarkable statements