PASSER ES. ( 47 ) SYLVIIDM. 



THE PtEDSTAET. 



REDTAIL, FIRETAIL. 



Phoenicura ruticilla. 



The sun, the season, in each thing 

 Revives new pleasures, the sweet Spring 

 Hath put to flight the Winter keen. 

 To glad 07ir lovely Summer queen. 



Uncertain — about 1590. 



The Eedstart, which is one of our summer migrants, gene- 

 rally arrives in Berwickshire from the third week of April 

 to the second week of May, when it may be occasionally 

 seen flitting along the edges of woods near road-sides, and 

 after a short flight alighting, with a jerk of its tail, on 

 hedges, walls, and the lower branches of tall trees. It is a 

 rather conspicuous little bird, the bright colours of the 

 male, with the pure white spot on his forehead and the red 

 feathers under his tail, being very attractive. The males 

 arrive a few days before the females, which is the case 

 Avith most of our migratory warblers. 



About twenty or five-and-twenty years ago, the Eedstart 

 was much rarer in the county than it is at present, and it is 

 one of those birds which have increased in numbers of late 

 years, as mentioned by Dr. Eobson-Scott, in his Anniversary 

 Address as President of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, on 

 the 24th of September 1874. It is now an annual visitor to 

 various districts of the county, where, in former times, it was 



