EEDSTART. 55 



a very soft and pleasing iiote^ but I have never heard it in 

 Sussex, though frequently in other counties. 



It is most common on the alluvial tracts between the 

 Downs and the sea in west Sussex, and to the eastward 

 about Hastings and Redhill. It is also occasionally met 

 with on the sandy parts about Storrington and Henfield, and 

 much more rarely in the clayey portions of the Weald. I 

 have only seen three examples at Cowfold in forty years, 

 one on ray lawn in April 1849, and a male accompanied by 

 a young bird in my orchard in 1852. 



It breeds very sparingly in Sussex, in old fruit trees, in 

 holes in the trunk, or in the interior of the thatch of some 

 outbuilding, or in a wall. It builds a rather loose nest with 

 a good deal of green moss externally, and lines it principally 

 with horsehair and a few feathers, but is not very particular 

 respecting the material, as I once found that it had made 

 use of about a quarter of a yard of valuable lace, which it 

 had stolen from a summerhouse where a lady had been 

 sitting at work. It is remarkable that it should so seldom 

 breed in Sussex, as I have frequently, in my younger days, 

 found the nest in the very southernmost parts of Surrey, 

 especially about Leith Hill. 



BLACK REDSTART. 



RuticiUa titys. 



Is a regular autumn visitant to the coast, but appears to have 

 been long overlooked, though one of the first examples 

 noticed in England Avas obtained near Brighton (at Hove) 

 in 1830 (Yarrell, B. B. vol. i. p. 333). 



It generally arrives about October, but although it has 

 occasionally remained as late as April, I am not aware that 



