TURDIN.f;. 



31 



THE REDSTART. 



RUTICILLA PHCENICURUS (LinncCUs). 



The date of the arrival of the Redstart is to some extent in- 

 fluenced by the prevaihng temperature in the early spring : in 

 1893 I watched a male on March 31st, while several were recorded 

 by other observers on ist April. As a rule, however, it is not until 

 the middle of April that the males attract attention by their bright 

 plumage, as they flit, with lateral movements of the tail, from one 

 low branch to another, along the skirts of the English woodlands. 

 Although generally diffused throughout Great Britain, especially in the 

 south, the Redstart is often unaccountably partial in its distribution ; 

 being uncommon to the west of Exeter, an unusual breeder in 

 Cornwall, only an autumn visitor to the Scilly Islands, and rare in 

 Pembrokeshire, though fairly plentiful in other parts of Wales. 

 In Scotland it has of late years spread northwards ; now breeding 

 freely in the Moray basin, and only less so in Sutherland, Caithness 

 and West Ross ; but its visits to the Orkneys and Shetlands are chiefly 

 autumnal, and in the Hebrides it is as yet unrecorded. In Ireland 

 several pairs are now known to nest annually in co. Wicklow, and 

 the bird has recently been found breeding in co. Tyrone. 



On the Continent the Redstart is found in summer from the 

 North Cape to the wooded regions of Central, and even Southern 

 Europe, although better known in the latter on its spring and 



