

WARBLERS 43 



A.S. rudduc. It is employed by Chaucer ("Parlia- 

 ment of Foules," 1. 349), Spenser (" Epithalamium," 

 i. 82), and Shakespeare (" Cymbeline," Act iv. sc. 2). 

 To Cornishmen it is known as ruddoc, and to 

 Welshmen as rhuddog. Similarly the dun-coloured 

 hedge-sparrow in some parts of the country is 

 known as " dunnock." 



The pretty legend of the Robin covering 

 the dead with leaves and flowers, " the friendless 

 bodies of unburied men," as John Webster wrote 

 in 1638, has been elegantly alluded to by Shake- 

 speare {I.e.), Izaak Walton, Drayton, and Collins 

 in his "Dirge in Cymbeline." 



REDSTART. Ruticilla flKEnicurus (Linnagus). PI. 7, 

 figs. 9, 10. Length, 5-25 in.; wing, 3 in.; tarsus, 

 •9 m. 



A summer migrant to England and Scotland ; 

 very rare in Ireland, but has nested in co. Wick- 

 low, at Powerscourt, in 1885, and has since been 

 observed there annually. For some remarks on a 

 female Redstart assuming the plumage of the male, 

 see Gurney, Trans. Norf. Soc, iv. (1889), p. 182. 

 The young in their first plumage are spotted like 

 young Robins. 



BLACK REDSTART. Ruticilla tithys (ScopoH). PI. 7, 

 figs. 7, 8. Length, 5-75 in. ; wing, 3*3 in. ; tarsus, 1 in. 



A winter visitant to England ; well known in 

 Devon and Cornwall ; rare in Scotland and Ireland. 

 In a few instances reported to have nested in 



