AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 109 



(Irchester) parish church on Sunday, December 2nd, 

 1883, and feeding busily " (op. supra cit. 1884, 

 p. 31). Mr. Slater has since this informed me 

 of a fairly circumstantial report of the nesting of 

 this species in a garden-wall at Orlingbury, but 

 I feel hardly warranted in recording this as an 

 established fact on the evidence at present in my 

 possession. I have met with this bird in most parts 

 of Europe that I have visited during the summer 

 months, and have seen it in winter in the north of 

 Spain, Algeria, and Tunis. In Rhenish Prussia it 

 frequently nests in walls in towns and villages in the 

 low country, but in Spain it appears to prefer the 

 mountains during the breeding-season ; I found a 

 nest in a cattle-shed near Panticosa in Arao-on at 

 some 6000 feet above sea-level, and have frequently 

 seen Black Redstarts at greater altitudes than this in 

 the Spanish Pyrenees. From the 4th ed. of Yarrell's 

 ' British Birds ' I gather that there is good evidence, 

 but no actual proof, of the breeding of this bird in 

 Great Britain ; but the great majority of records of 

 occurrence in our country have reference to the 

 months of late autumn and winter. In the work just 

 quoted will be found some very interesting notes by 

 Mr. Gatcombe upon the regular appearance of this 

 species at and about Plymouth. The Black Redstart, 

 in habits, materials of nest, and to some extent in 

 song, resembles the Common Redstart ; but I have 

 never met with, or to the best of my recollection 

 heard of, a nest of the present species in a tree. The 

 eggs of this bird are pure white and generally five 

 in number. 



