THE REDSTARTS 421 



redstarts are often caught and let loose in a room to catch flies. 

 One of these birds was watched for an hour, during which time it 

 destroyed six hundred! In no remote future, when we learn to 

 govern our relations with the birds more wisely than we do, fly- 

 catchers and redstarts will perhaps take the place of fly-papers and 

 fly-string. Why not? How much more agreeable it would be to 

 have our most obnoxious household pests cleanly and neatly disposed 

 of by sylph-like creatures flitting over our heads about our rooms, 

 than to see them perishing slowly in sticky crawling clusters ! l 



In the case of the Redstarts, as of most other species, the cocks 

 arrive each April on our shores some days in advance of the hens. 

 The reason for this is by no means clear ; it is a problem to which 

 we shall revert in a later chapter. 2 Each cock returns probably, in 

 some cases certainly, to the place where he nested in the previous 

 summer. What occurs in the case of young birds about to breed 

 for the first time is not yet known, and it would be of great interest 

 to ascertain whether they return to the place of their birth, and, if 

 so, what their relations are to one another and their parents. 

 Certain it is, that when once a cock Redstart has selected the site 

 for his nest, he permits no other of his species except his mate to 

 approach it within a certain distance. 



I have not seen, and can find no record of, the redstart's love 

 displays beyond the fact that, as shown in Mr. Seaby's drawing, he 

 droops his wings and spreads to the full the ruddy glories of his tail, 

 moving it often from side to side, after the manner of the redbacked- 

 shrike. The black-redstart behaves in much the same way. Accord- 

 ing to Bailly, he begins by saluting the object of his affections with 

 a few faint notes, plein de douceur, it is true, but timid and restrained. 

 After this cautious prelude, which is not unfavourably received, he 

 plucks up courage, repeats his notes, uttering them with greater 



1 Dresser and Sharpe, Birds of Europe. 



2 A French ornithologist, Dr. Gromier, states that in the case of every migrating French 

 species he found that the first arrivals are males, followed by males and females, the last 

 arrivals being females only. No doubt each male precedes the female with which he is paired 

 (Revue Franqaise d'Ornithologie, 2 Annee, p. 253). 



