1 1 THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 



coasts during winter, flitting in and out among tlie 

 rocks and caves (undercliff) all day long." (Zool. 

 1870, p. 2026). He also observed its pertinacity 

 in driving away Black Redstarts from its haunts. 

 Instances of curious nesting sites might be cited 

 without number, Mr. A. L. Hine-Haycock tells me 

 of a bird at Sidmouth, which built hei- nest in a coil 

 of rope, hanging up in a tool-shed. The rope and 

 nest were removed and placed on a neighbouring 

 wall. The Redbreast continued to sit upon her eggs 

 and hatched the young out in safety. A saying is 

 current in North Devon, that when a Redbreast 

 perches on the roof of a cottage and utters its 

 plaintive "weet," the baby in the cottage will die. 

 Another and wide-spread belief is that, if a 

 Redbreast happens to die in your hand, the hand in 

 question will always shake, as if with palsy. 



mGRTrnGrALK—Daulias luscinia, (Linn). 



A SUMMER visitant, rare or very local, and little 

 known in the county. Montagu met with it at 

 Kingsbridge, and Mr. R. P. Nicholls reports a 

 specimen picked up dead on a road in that locality, 

 April 24th, 1888. At Topsham the late Mr. F. W. 

 L. Ross heard two singing in the summer of 1845, 

 and another was shot near Honiton in May, 1846, 

 (Zool. 1846. p. 1393). Mr. Ross possessed a bird, 

 now in the Exeter Museum, shot in Stoke Wood 

 near Exeter, prior to 1845, and one was heard in 

 the same wood in 1875. It is reported also to have 



