W II I N CH AT.
SAXICOLA KUBETRA.
Tin: Whinehat is a migrant, arriving on the south coast about the middle or latter end of April, anil gradually
working its way towards tho corth. It occasionally ha])[]cns that hut few show themselves till the first or
second week ia May ; I have seen the largest gatherings of fresh comers in the vicinity or the Sussex shinglehanks
on the 6th and 9th of the month. It is seldom that these birds, after lauding, remain long in the
vicinity of the coast ; in general they rapidly disperse to their haunts in the neighbourhood, or betake
themselves inland on their way towards the north.
I never received word of this species or the Slonechat being taken on the light-ships oil the east coast.
I, however, on two or threo occasions, remarked a number of Whinehats on the Denes on the Norfolk coast
during squally weather, at about the season when they prepare for a move towards the south. As there
is usually a considerable addition to the residents in the southern counties shortly before their time of
migration on the return journey to the continent, it is, I imagine, probable that the greater number
of the summer visitors to the northern anil eastern portions of the country make their way inland towards
the south, and then cross the channel from the coasts of Kent and Sussex. What cuurso may be followed
by the birds from the western counties 1 have not had an opportunity of judging.
Though I find but few notes in any of my journals concerning this species, I met with it iu most of the
northern counties of the Highlands. I cannot call to mind a single instance of hating come across the
Whinehat in the Outer Hebrides, though a few pairs were noticed during the breeding-season on the west coast
of Ross-shire. In Sussex and Norfolk, where I have had frequent opportunities for studying the habits of
this species, it breeds in much the same localities as the St once hat, though in slightly different situations;
1 have repeatedly found the nest of the Whiuchat in far more open spots than would he resurtcd to by its
By the middle of September, numbers of these birds may he noticed, iu their dusky autumn plumage,
tlitting round the sheep-folds and along the road-sides, within a few miles of the south coast. Soon after
the end of September the latest stragglers have departed for a warmer climate.