PLATE I 

 REDSTART. Ruticilla phcenicurus 



May 3O///, 1897. Lyndhurst, Hampshire. This nest was built in a hole in 

 a half-decayed holly, which was partly overgrown with ivy. The nest was 

 chiefly composed of moss, but the outside was beautifully decorated with the 

 skeletonised leaves of the holly, and the lining was entirely of horse-hair. 



When the young Redstarts are hatched, their parents are taxed to the 

 uttermost to procure sufficient food for them, as they are entirely reared on 

 insects and their larvae, and it must take a large quantity of grubs and small 

 flies to satisfy the voracious appetites of seven hungry young birds. 



Not far from this particular holly I walked past a large rotten branch 

 which had fallen from a huge ash-tree, and, observing an old woodpecker's hole 

 in it, I went forward to examine it. As I stooped down, out flew a Redstart, 

 disclosing her nest, with five beautiful eggs, in the old hole. 



During the last few years the Redstart has increased in Strathspey in an 

 extraordinary way, and in the Glenmore and Rothiemurchus forests it is almost 

 the commonest bird met with ; the same increase is also noticeable in several 

 other parts of Scotland. 



