REDSTART. 35 



bird was not previously reported from that locality ; at 

 Flamborough and Spurn great flights were seen at the same 

 time. In the following year at the Humbcr and Tees estuaries 

 a great " rush " was reported early in September, which 

 continued up to the 25th of that month, and I saw a single 

 bird during a gale as late as the 24th October ; similar flights 

 also occurred in September 1884, at intervals from the 4th 

 to the 17th ; and on many occasions between this date and 

 1887 Redstarts and Wheatears were recorded as migrating 

 in company, the entries covering the months of August, 

 September, and October ; large arrivals were seen at Spurn 

 and Flamborough in September and October 1889, and 

 again at Spurn on 22nd September 1892, whilst at the latter 

 place, in September 1901, every hedge was swarming with 

 them ; in the same month of the year 1903 many were 

 observed at the Teesmouth, and along the sea-board to 

 Spurn, associated with Wheatears, Pied Flycatchers, Stone- 

 chats, and other small migrants. It has been remarked 

 that larger numbers land annually at Flamborough Head 

 than elsewhere. 



At Linton-upon-Ouse a pair of these birds was kept under 

 observation while the young required their attention, when 

 it was calculated they destroyed at least six hundred grubs 

 and caterpillars for food in one day (Zool. 1863, p. 8680), 

 The colour of the throat in the adult male Redstart, while 

 living, is of a deep, dark blue, which changes after death to 

 black. A female assuming the plumage of the male, was 

 caught while sitting upon her eggs, by Mr. W. Eagle Clarke 

 at Wike, near Leeds, in June 1886 (J. H. Gurney, Ibis, i888» 

 p. 229). 



Occasionally a departure from the customary nesting site 

 is made, and instances are known where the bird has chosen 

 the branch of a trained pear tree {Zool. 1869, p. 1801), an 

 inverted flower pot, and even a depression under a sleeper on 

 a railway ; the late W. W. Boulton also recorded a nest in 

 Beverley Minster, to which the bird gained access through 

 a broken pane of glass {op. cit. 1865, p. 9527). 



