BLACK REDSTART. 293 



RUTICILLA TITHYS. 

 BLACK REDSTART. 



(PLATE 9.) 



Ficedula phcenicurus, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 409 (1760). 



Motacilla phcenicurus /3. titys, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 335 (1766). 



Sylvia tithys, Scop. Ann. i. p. 157(1769)); et auctorum plurimorum Scopoli, 



Bechstein, Temminck, (Newton), (Dresser), (Loche), (Gray), (Harting), 



(Shelley), &c. 



Motadlla strata, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 983 (1788, ex Lath.). 

 Motacilla erythrourus, Rajin. Caratt. p. 6 (1810). 

 Saxicola tithys (Scop), Koch, Syst. later. Zool. i. p. 186 (1816). 

 Ruticilla titys (Scop), Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 365 (1831). 

 Phcenicura tithys (Scop.), Gould, B. Eur. ii. pi. 96 (1837). 

 Lusciola thitys (Scop), Keys. u. Bias. Wirb. Eur. pp. lix, 191 (1840). 

 Ruticilla cairii, Gerle, Diet. Univ. tfHist. Nat. xi. p. 259 (1848). 

 Erithacus tithys (Scop), Degl. Orn, Eur. i. p. 504 (1849). 

 Erithacus cairii (Gerbe), Deyl. Orn. Eur. i. p. 507 (1849). 



The Black Redstart is a regular winter visitant to the whole of the 

 south coast of England, and is not uncommon in Cornwall; but there is 

 no positive evidence that it has ever bred in the British Islands. White 

 eggs believed to be those of this species have been repeatedly produced 

 from various British localities ; but in no case has the bird been obtained 

 or satisfactorily identified. Sterland asserts that he saw the bird in 

 Sherwood Forest ; but the position of the nest in a hedge almost amounts 

 to proof that he was mistaken in his identification. 



The geographical distribution during the breeding-season of the Black 

 Redstart is a somewhat peculiar one. In the south it extends from 

 Portugal through Algeria to Palestine. Northwards its range becomes 

 more restricted, and apparently does not extend east of the valleys of the 

 Dneister and the Vistula or north of Holstein. In autumn stragglers have 

 been known to occur in West Russia, Scandinavia, the north of England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland, the Faroes (on the authority of Captain Feilden), 

 and even, it is said, as far as Iceland. North of the Alps it is for the 

 most part a migratory bird, though a few are known to frequent situa- 

 tions where open water is to be found during the winter. South of the 

 Alps it is fqund throughout the year, its numbers being increased during 

 winter, its range at that season extending as far south as Nubia. In 

 the Caucasus and in Persia it is replaced by R. ochrura (the R. erythro- 

 procta of Gould), which differs in having the colour of the lower belly 



