BLACK REDSTART. 213 



Africa, With us it is a bird of passage and winter visitor in 

 small numbers. On passage it is most frequent on the east 

 coast south of Yorkshire and the south coast ; in Scotland it 

 is an irregular passage visitor, and in Ireland is not infrequently- 

 met with in the south-east, where, as in Cornwall and Devon, a 

 few spend the winter. Saunders states that " in Wales, it occurs 

 irregularly in Pembrokeshire but rarely elsewhere," and this 

 notion of its rarity in the west has been freely copied. My 

 own and the observations of others in Anglesey and Carnarvon, 

 and especially those of Mr. R. W. Jones at Llandudno, prove 

 that it is a frequent and apparently regular visitor from October 

 until March, certainly occasionally wintering, in North Wales. 

 Seebohm suggested that the birds which he thought only 

 reached our south coast, came from Holland and took the 

 shortest sea crossings, but apparently numbers pass from 

 Holland, if that is their starting point, westward or north-west, 

 and crossing England reach the west coast. Occurrences, by 

 no means so infrequent as has been supposed, in the Lake 

 District, Lancashire and Cheshire, and in Scotland, point to 

 regular movements which may be elucidated by accumulated 

 records. 



Frequent reports of early Common Redstarts probably refer 

 to this species. The "fire" of the tail labels the bird as 

 Redstart, but it may be distinguished by its sootier appearance, 

 even when in immature males the distinctive white wing patch 

 is not apparent. The male has no chestnut on the flanks nor 

 white on the forehead. The female is greyer than the hen 

 Common Redstart, and at any age the grey axillaries and under 

 wing-coverts are distinctive ; in the Common Redstart these 

 are buff or chestnut. 



The Black Redstart arrives in October or November and 

 may pass on or remain to winter, returning eastward in March 

 or April. It breeds in western Germany and Holland, but has 

 not been proved to nest in England. Its winter haunts differ 



