THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 273 



91. Redstart [GARTENROTHLIXG]. 

 SYLVIA PHCENICURUS, Latham.i 



Heligolandish : Sniock-heiked. This is the local name applied to the 

 male bird ; females and young birds of this species and the Bhu-k 

 Kedstart are known under the name of Ro-ad st&tjed = Red-tail. 



Sylvia phcenicurus. Naumann, iii. 510. 



Kedstart. Dresser, ii. 277. 



Bee-Jin de muraillcs. Temminck, Manuel, i. 220, iii. 146. 



The Redstart visits Heligoland almost always in very large 

 numbers, sometimes in immense swarms, both during its homeward 

 journey in spring and during its return passage in autumn. Inas- 

 much, however, as fine warm weather is an indispensable condition 

 for its journey, it rarely makes its appearance before the middle of 

 April or the beginning of May, and leaves again as early as the last 

 week in August, and throughout the whole of September. During 

 the latter month it is met with in greatest abundance ; so that if 

 the days be fine and warm, with light south-easterly and southerly 

 winds, all the gardens, and especially the potato-fields, teem with 

 countless thousands of these birds. 



This Redstart breeds throughout the whole of Europe, with the 

 exception of Spain and Portugal ; it breeds also very abundantly 

 through the whole of Scandinavia, where it may be met with as 

 far as 70 N. latitude, and even beyond. 



It is impossible to state with certainty how far eastwards the 

 nesting stations of this species extend in Asia. Seebohm (Siberia 

 in Asia) shot a young bird on the Jenesei, and SewertzofT notes it 

 as an apparently common bird in Turkestan. 



92. Ehrenberg's Redstart [WEISSFLUGLICHER ROTHLING]. 

 SYLVIA MESOLEUCA, Ehrenberg.* 



Ehrenberg's Redstart. Ruticilla mesoleuca. Dresser, ii. 285. 



My collection possesses a specimen of this rare bird, which was 

 caught here on the 12th of June 1864. It is an old male, and in its 

 general markings resembles an intensely-coloured old male of 

 S. phwnicurus, with the exception that the wing-markings are 

 different, the large primaries having fine white edges. This white 

 coloration broadens out considerably on the secondaries, commenc- 

 ing at the base, and increases in width with each successive feather, 

 so that in the last of the posterior flight-feathers it covers the whole 



1 Ruticilla plicenicurus (Linn.). * Ruticilla mesoleuca (Ehren.). 



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