1919-] Birds of the (.'anary Islands. 301 



of the Canary Group — in which islands, be it uoted, there 

 are no resident Redbreasts. 



I have 7iot been able to examine a specimen, but am of 

 opinion that these birds are genuine migrants^ which on 

 rare occasions visit the eastern islands. In this list it is 

 intentionally named binomially, and therefore no original 

 reference is given. Whether these visitors are examples of 

 the Continental Redl)reast (^E. r. ruhecula), which seems to 

 me most probable, or whether o£ the north-west African 

 race (E. r. tvitherbyi) cannot yet be proved. I strongly 

 suspect the former, and, if this is the case, it will explain 

 how the resident Redbreasts {E. r. microrhynchus) originally 

 arrived at, and came to be isolated in, three of the western 

 islands. 



There is no evidence to show that at the present day the 

 resident Redbreasts of Palma, Gomera, and Hierro have 

 their numbers augmented in spring — the migrating Red- 

 breasts having only been recorded from the eastern islands. 

 It may be suggested that the birds which have been recorded 

 from Fuerteventura are merely stragglers from the western 

 islands. I do not believe this to be the solution. In the 

 first place, the birds were observed in March — in which 

 month E. r. microrhynchus is breeding, — and it would then 

 be very unlikely to leave the islands which they have made 

 their home when nesting is in full swing. Secondly, we 

 have no records from Gran Canaria or Tenerife, in which 

 geographically intervening islands another subspecies {E. r. 

 sujjerhus) is the resident form and the only Redbreast 

 known. 



So far as my knowledge goes, it shows that the various 

 breeding birds living in the Canary Archipelago never 

 migrate from one island to another. We have no reason, 

 therefore, to suppose that the pale resident Redbreast is an 

 exception to tins. 



The records of Redbreasts from the eastern islands are as 

 follows: — Polatzek saw it once in the Barranco Rio Palma 

 in Fuerteventura, and notes that it is very rarely seen in 

 this island (Orn. Jahrb. 1908, p. 185). 



