12 THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 



man having recorded a female Black Redstart 

 canglit near Exeter as early as October 8tli, or 

 tliree weeks before the earliest of Mr. Gatcombe's 

 first arrivals. Both Mr. Gatcombe and the Rev. W. 

 S. Hore, remarked that Black Redstarts frequently 

 seek their food about old quarries, high buildings 

 and outhouses ; the Rev. J. C. Green writes me 

 that he has observed a Black Redstart catching flies 

 on his church at Modbury. Those Ornithologists, 

 who are acquainted with this bird's cheery and 

 constantly uttered song (in summer), will be 

 surprised that no one appears to have recorded that 

 it sings in its winter quarters. The Editor says he 

 has heard the Black Redstart singing merrily in 

 September, but it is highly sensitive to barometrical 

 changes, and though at other times, a most sprightly 

 bird, assumes an aspect of misery in broken weather. 

 Mr. Gatcombe himself noticed this in 1875, on the 

 28tli November, the wind being N E. and bitterly 

 cold, he wrote, "The Black Redstarts appear to 

 suffer much from the cold, are very tame, and may 

 be seen hopping or puffed up on the grass above the 

 cliffs, instead of on the rocks below. The severe 

 weather has also been disastrous to the Green 

 Woodpeckers." (Zool. 1876. p. 4784). Mr. 

 Gatcombe noticed that the Black Redstart was not 

 a difficult bird to catch alive, and in this the Editor 

 concurs, having take both old and young birds in 

 an ordinary Nightingale trap, but the species requires 

 insects to keep it in good health, and is too active 



