. The sportsman's British bird book . ikewisetypifies the group of chats constituting the sub-family Structurally these birds comevery close to the redstart group (Ruticillin;e;, and their chief claim todistinction appears to be based on their more flycatcher-like habits, allthese birds habitually perching on twigs, shrubs, rails, stones,or clods, fromwhich they make periodical sallies to capture their insect-prey on thewing. Frequent jerking and spreading of the tail is very characteristicof the chats ; and seasonal change in the colour of the plumage owingto the wearing away of
. The sportsman's British bird book . ikewisetypifies the group of chats constituting the sub-family Structurally these birds comevery close to the redstart group (Ruticillin;e;, and their chief claim todistinction appears to be based on their more flycatcher-like habits, allthese birds habitually perching on twigs, shrubs, rails, stones,or clods, fromwhich they make periodical sallies to capture their insect-prey on thewing. Frequent jerking and spreading of the tail is very characteristicof the chats ; and seasonal change in the colour of the plumage owingto the wearing away of the margins of the feathers is a featurecommon to this and the redstart group. As a rule, the sexes differmarkedly in colour ; and a further resemblance to the redstarts ispresented by the black legs, but, on the other hand, the tail isnever red, and the beak is longer. The majority of the species aremigrator), sometimes, as in the present case, to a very marked are, to a great degree, inhabitants of open and more or less. WIIKATKAK (male). WHEATEAR 473 desert countries. The geographical range of the wheatear is veryextensive, reaching in summer througliout central and northern Europeand Asia across Bering Strait to Alaska, and also including theelevated tracts of southern Europe. Moreover, some of these birds,after passing over Iceland and the Shetlands, find suitable breeding-grounds on the Greenland coast. In winter, vvheatears seek thegenial climate of northern Africa, Persia, the lower Himalaya, andthe plains of India. To the British Isles the species is mainly asummer-visitor, arriving in March or April and departing in Septemberor October. In the southern and midland counties these birds nestchiefly on downs and other uplands, but in the north their breeding-stations are more widely distributed, and include the Shetlands andOrkneys. The individuals which arrive in April are larger andbrowner than the early comers, and it is the former which pass onto breed in
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Keywords: ., bookauthorlydekkerrichard184919, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900
