beetles, and other insects picked up from the ground, but also pursues and catches flying insects. He has a short, sharp call-note that sounds like two pieces of stone struck smartly together; hence the name of ‘stone-clatter,’ by which he is known in some localities. His short and simple song would attract little attention in groves and gardens; it is charming on account of the barren, silent situations it is heard in. It gives life to the solitude, and is a love-song, accompanied by pretty gestures and motions, and is frequently uttered as the bird hovers in the air. The wheatear breeds in a cavity under a stone, or in a hole or crevice in a stone wall; also in cairns and in the cavities in peat-stacks, and occasionally in a disused rabbit-burrow or under a clod of earth. The nest is made of dry grass, loosely put together and slightly lined with some soft material--moss and rootlets, rabbits’ fur, horsehair, or wool, or feathers. From four to seven eggs are laid, pale greenish blue in colour, in some cases faintly marked with purplish specks at the large end. The wheatear, owing to its wide distribution in this country, is known by a variety of local names in different districts; of these may be mentioned _fallowchat_, _whitetail_, _stone-cracker_, _chack-bird_, and _clod-hopper_. * * * * * Two other species of the genus Saxicola have been included in the list of British birds. These are the black-throated wheatear (_Saxicola strapazina_), of which a single specimen has been obtained, and the desert wheatear (_Saxicola deserti_), of which two or three specimens have been shot. Whinchat. Pratincola rubetra. Upper parts dusky brown edged with reddish yellow; broad white stripe over the eye; throat and sides of neck white; neck and breast bright yellowish red; a large white spot on the wings and base of the tail; tip of the tail and the two middle feathers dusky brown; belly and flanks yellowish white. _Female_: colours duller; white spot on the wing smaller. Length, five inches and a quarter. * * * * *