336 SYLVITD.E. 



occurs at Tangiers. Mr. A. C. Smith saw it in Portugal 

 frequenting the very heart of Lisbon, and it is abundant in 

 Spain, haunting the towns and villages in autumn and winter, 

 and repairing to the hills to breed. Within the limits just 

 traced it is a well-known summer-bird in most parts of 

 Europe, choosing cities for its residence equally with high 

 mountains, and its adaptability to such varied conditions of 

 life, as is exemplified thus, and also by its so constantly and, 

 for a migrant Warbler, so exceptionally wintering on our 

 coasts, is doubtless a reason for the increased and ever 

 increasing territory it now occupies. 



The manners and food of this bird are somewhat similar 

 to those of the common Redstart. Its nest, built of grass, 

 moss and a few dead leaves, and lined with hair or wool, is 

 placed in the cleft of a rock, under a heap of stones or, in 

 towns and villages, in the hole of a wall, or the roof of a 

 house or church*. The eggs are five or six in number, of a 

 pure, shining white, and measure from "85 to '7 by from 'Gl 

 to '55 in. The female frequently has two broods in the 

 season. The song of the male, according to Bechstein, 

 "contains a few high, clear notes, which may be heard from 

 an early hour in the morning till night. The bird is always 

 gay and active, shaking its tail at every hop, and continually 

 uttering its peculiar call-note." 



j\Ir. Gatcombe, who for more than twenty years has noted 

 the regular appearance of this species in the neighbourhood 

 of Plymouth, informs the Editor that it generally arrives 

 about the first week of November and remains till the end of 

 March or beginning of April. " The birds," he says, "fre- 

 quent the rocks along the coast just above highwater-mark, 

 now and then hopping on the grass on the top of the clifi's, 

 like Wheatears, but seldom perching on a bush or twig. 

 Quarries near the sea and stone-A\alls of any kind are very 

 attractive to them, and I have also seen them on church 

 towers and flitting among the tombstones in churchyards, 

 taking insects like Flycatchers. I once took from the gullet 

 of one an example, about an inch long, of Ligia oceanica 



* M. Gerbe mentions a nest built on a locomotive steam-engine. 



