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It is difficult to put oneself in the place of the Stonechat or of the Whinchat. But even after making due allowance for the danger inseparable from any attempt to do so, there remains the unquestionable fact that whereas the impulse to attack was strong in the one, the impulse to defend itself was wholly lacking in the other.
The same is true of the Whinchat, and one would scarcely expect to find this bird attacking Buntings as it sometimes does.
Thus, for part of the year, they may be said to lead a double existence; for just as the Whinchat, that is sociable on migration, betrays a changed nature when it reaches its destination, so too does the nature of these residents change from hour to hour according to whether they are seeking food or occupying the breeding ground.
Professor Ansted includes the Whinchat in his list, and marks it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is no specimen in the Museum. WHEATEAR. Saxicola Oenanthe, Linnaeus. French, "Motteux cul blanc," "Traquet moteux."
There, too, sedentary as an owl in the daytime, the corn bunting was common, discharging his brief song at intervals a sound as of shattering glass. The whinchat was rarely seen, but I constantly met the small, prettily coloured stonechat flitting from bush to bush, following me, and never ceasing his low, querulous tacking chirp, anxious for the safety of his nest.
There are few land-birds on Canvey Island, because there are few trees. Some greenfinches, a whinchat or two, almost no pipits or larks, and very few sparrows. The shore-birds are numerous and increasing, for the Essex County Council strictly protect all the eggs and birds during the breeding season.
In listening to one the other day for about a quarter of an hour, I heard it give three notes of the Swallow, two of the Martin, and two of the Spring-Wagtail; and in addition, notes of the House- Sparrow, Whinchat, Starling, Chaffinch, Whitethroat, Greenfinch, Little Redpole, and Whin-Linnet, besides the notes of half-a-dozen birds which I did not know; at least, a reasoning from analogy would induce me to think them imitations, and I have no right to suppose they were not because I did not happen to recognize them.
Take whatever species we will Whitethroat, Whinchat, Willow-Warbler, Red-backed Shrike, it matters not which, for there is no essential difference in the general course of procedure this condition will be found to prevail.
It is only a summer visitant, and I doubt if it always remains to breed, though it certainly does so occasionally, as I have seen it in Guernsey through June and July mostly in the south part of the Island, near Pleimont. In my last visit to the Islands, however, in June and July, 1878, I did not see the Whinchat anywhere, neither did I see one when there in June, 1876.
Whinchat the milliner; a fellow named Ratt, who had been twenty times taken up for thieving; and the poulterer's son, Bill Goose. I wish you had been with them to have seen how Bruin made Jocko the monkey dance, and how all these folks laughed. They capered about finely to get out of his way; but at last Jocko jumped from his master's head on to Mrs.
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