338 THE THRUSH FAMILY 



REDSTART [Phcenicurus phcenicurus (Linnaeus). Rutidlla phcenicurus (L. ). 

 Firetail, redtail, redster. French, rouge-queue ; German, Garten-rotschwanz ; 

 Italian, codirosso]. 



i. Description. Distinguished from the black redstart by the white fore- 

 head and the copper-red colour of the breast and flanks. (PI. 43.) The male in 

 nuptial dress has the forehead white, bounded in front by a black bar extending 

 to the lores, the crown, neck and back bluish slate-grey, the lower rump and upper 

 tail-coverts rich chestnut ; the tail a rather duller red ; the two middle tail-feathers 

 dusky. The wings are dark brown. The throat, sides of the face and neck jet 

 black, breast and flanks rich coppery chestnut, darkest on the fore-breast : abdomen 

 white. Length, 5'4 in. [140 mm.]. After the autumn moult the grey of the upper 

 parts is masked by long brown fringes which terminate the new feathers. The 

 inner secondaries have broad margins of pale brown, while the black throat has a 

 hoary appearance, each feather having a white terminal fringe. The female has 

 the upper parts of a uniform brownish grey ; but the rump and tail resemble those 

 of the male. The throat and abdomen are of a dirty white, the fore-breast and 

 flanks rufous buff. She may be distinguished from the female black redstart in 

 having a white throat and abdomen, rufous-buff flanks, buff axillary feathers, 

 and white under tail-coverts tinged with buff. The juvenile dress is brownish 

 grey above, mottled with dull yellowish spots, half encircled by narrow loops of 

 black. The tail is as in the adult. The under parts are buff-white, each feather 

 on the fore-breast and flanks tipped with a semicircular fringe of dark brown. 

 The median coverts have terminal spots of ochre-yellow, while the major coverts 

 and inner secondaries are dark greyish-brown margined with ochreous brown, 

 [w. P. P.] 



3. Distribution. A summer visitor to the British Isles and the whole of the 

 European Continent, except Spain south of the Cantabrian range, Greece, the 

 Crimea, and South-east Russia, and to West Siberia. Other sub -specific forms occur 

 in Algeria, and from South Russia to Asia Minor and Persia. In the southern 

 portions of its range it chiefly inhabits mountain ranges. In Great Britain it is 

 somewhat local, but breeds in the woodlands of most of our English counties, 

 though rarely in Sussex, West Devon, Cornwall, and Pembroke. In Scotland it 

 now breeds in the woods of the Moray area plentifully, and in smaller numbers 

 in West Ross, Sutherland and Caithness, while it has once been noted as nesting 

 in the Shetlands, but not in the Orkneys or Outer Hebrides. Its range in Ireland 



