REDWING. 269 



almost starved, alike unable to prosecute their journey fur- 

 ther south to more genial climates, or to bear the rigour of 

 this ; though others, perhaps better prepared for travel or 

 possessing a stronger migratory instinct, extend their flight, 

 as will be presently seen, to very distant countries. 



After the winter is over, the Redwing returns to us and 

 remains till the gradual advance of the season induces it to 

 resume its journey northward. Some are almost every year 

 seen in the British Islands so late as the middle of May ; 

 and White of Selborne remarks, that in the very cold and 

 backward season of 1740 they lingered in Hampshire till 

 June. Mr. Eyton has noticed a few remaining all the sum- 

 mer in Shropshire, and the same is said to have been observed 

 in Aberdeenshire. Cases, though to be regarded with doubt, 

 have also been recorded of its breeding in this island : 

 of these perhaps the best authenticated is that mentioned by 

 Dr. Saxby, who says (Zool. p. 7427) that in May, 1855, at 

 Maintwrog in North Wales, he found a Redwing's nest with 

 four eggs, upon which he repeatedly saw the bird ; while 

 Fleming states that Bullock, in a letter "dated 23rd April 

 1819, mentioned the circumstance of its breeding in Harris, 

 where he had observed it in the preceding summer." 



In Sweden and Norway this bird breeds in the more 

 elevated parts northward from lat. 57° N., its summer- 

 haunts being bounded below by the upper zone of the 

 fir-forests and extending to the limit of the birch trees. 

 Wolley observed of it in Lapland, as he informed Mr. 

 Hewitson, that it " makes its nest near the ground, in an 

 open part of the wood, generally in the outskirts, on a stump, 

 a log, or the roots of a fallen tree, sometimes amongst a 

 cluster of young stems of the birch, usually quite exposed, 

 so as almost to seem as if placed so purposely, the walls 

 often supported only by their foundation. The first or coarse 

 part of their nest is made for the most part of dried bents, 

 sometimes with fine twigs and moss ; this is lined with a 

 layer of dirt, and then is added a thick bed of fine grass of 

 the previous year, compactly woven together, which completes 

 the structure. Outside is often a good deal of the kind of 



