THE REDSTARTS 423 



I have not heard the song of the black-redstart. According 

 to Naumann it is not unlike that of the redstart, but less pleasant 

 to hear, and marred by certain harsh or hissing notes. It has three 

 phrases. The first he syllables as " Tsia tsissississississ" Of the 

 third he says nothing. The middle one contains the harsh notes, 

 and upon it he makes a most unfeeling comment. 1 Speaking pre- 

 sumably of the same notes, Bailly compares them to the noise 

 of very small pebbles rolling down the side of a rock. The bird 

 itself is conscious of no defects in its performance ; it is one of 

 the most diligent of songsters, and seeks the highest point it can 

 find from which to pour forth its singular melody. And there are 

 others who are as fond of it as he. To the ear of the Swiss peasant 

 the Ratling's notes make sweet music, for they herald the spring. He 

 welcomes the sound as do we each year the advent of the first 

 swallow. 



The redstart builds its nest as a rule in a hole. 2 I have found 

 one on the ground in an old deserted gravel-pit inside a wood. It 

 lay at the end of a tunnel that ran under an overarching tangle 

 of dead bracken and larch twigs. The parents betrayed its position 

 by going each in turn frequently to it with grubs for the young. 

 As I sat and watched, I became aware of a grating noise near by, 

 like that of many little files scraping on a bar of iron. The tune they 

 scraped never ceased, and at times it rose, becoming fast and furious, 

 a most unusual sound to hear in such a place. As I continued to 

 listen and wonder, it struck me that the moments of acceleration 

 corresponded to the visits of the redstarts to their nest. The files 

 were, in fact, seven young redstarts singing the song of the Succulent 

 Grub. And a merry song it was. 



Wishing to have a photograph of the parents at the nest, I 

 slung my mackintosh over my tripod, thrust a few brackens into the 



" Die mittlere Strophe hat so wunderbar gepresste Tone, dass es klingt als wolle der Vogel 

 vomieren." Vogel Mitteleuropas, i. 56. C. G. Beauchamp (Field, Nov. 5, 1910) writes that the 

 song " starts with two high-pitched notes not to say squeaks, then follows a rough, rasping 

 chr-r-r-auk, while the finale is a rather soft see-tsu-tsee. The whole song is uttered rapidly." 

 2 Both species also usually roost in holes. 



