HEREDITY 105 



(P. hiscinia), as well as a similar song {op. cit. p. 221). 

 The same authority states that the black redstart's 

 call -note, fitza^ being very similar to that of the 

 common nightingale, has given rise to its name of 

 " wall-nightingale." 



The common redstart not only has the alarm-cry, 

 chick, like that of the common fly-catcher, but this 

 note, as I have before stated, is usually preceded by 

 a little whistle in the interval of about a fifth — 



slurred upward, and sounding like the word tewy or 

 cooi. This little whistle was common to all the male 

 redstarts I have seen for some minutes in June. It 

 is quite different from all the notes just mentioned, 

 but is closely like the call-notes and danger-cries of 

 the young and adult chififchaff, and those of the full- 

 grown and the adult willow-warbler. The white- 

 throat utters the same cry, but at a much lower pitch, 

 as a danger-signal. The nightingale (so far as I have 

 observed in very many individuals) frequently com- 

 mences a phrase with this cry, but in a tone much 

 less loud than the succeeding notes ; in fact, so softly 

 that sometimes an observer must be not more than a 

 chain or two distant in order to detect it ; and I 



