REDSTART. 37 
song, or plaintive whee-tic, is a certain indication of the 
proximity of a nest. 
In the west of Cheshire the Redstart is not very 
plentiful, and Brockholes considered it scarce in 
Wirral.!' Dr. Dobie says it is now rare in the neigh- 
bourhood of Chester, although Mr. A. O. Walker for- 
merly found it plentiful, even in the city itself? 
Throughout the central and eastern parts of the 
county the Redstart is increasing in numbers, and 
in certain localities, such as Delamere Forest and 
many of the parks, where there is much old timber, 
it is abundant. Dunham Park is a favourite haunt, 
and on May 9th, 1896, we saw upwards of a dozen 
pairs there. 
In well-timbered districts the nest is usually placed 
in a crevice or hole in a tree trunk, although even 
where such sites are available it is sometimes built in 
a hole in a wall, or upon a beam beneath the eaves of a 
building. Mr. W. H. Peterkin once found a nest on 
the ground among the trees on Alderley Edge. In the 
East the birds nest in quarries and in the stone walls 
on the bare hillsides. 
The same site is resorted to year after year, if the 
birds are not molested. For two or three years a pair 
of Redstarts occupied a deep cleft in a thorn a few 
yards from the most frequented gate in Dunham Park, 
and succeeded in bringing off their young, although 
Whit-week came during the period of incubation, and 
hundreds of noisy trippers daily passed close by the 
sitting bird, whilst steam merry-go-rounds and hurdy- 
gurdies filled the air with discordant sounds within a 
few yards of the nest. 
1 Brockholes, op. cit. p. 6. 2 Dobie, op. cit. p. 288. 
