" Young ' Firetails ' bear a striking resemblance to fledgeling redbreasts." 



THE REDSTART 



T 



HE Redstart, or Firetail, as 

 it is frequently called in the 

 north of England, is a 

 summer visitor to our woods 

 and dells, arriving in April 

 and departing again in 

 August or September. It is 

 sparingly distributed over 

 most of the suitable parts of England, 

 Wales, and Scotland, but somewhat rare 

 in Ireland. I have met with it breeding 

 near farmhouses in Essex and Norfolk, 

 and in lonely Highland forests, but 

 nowhere so numerously as amongst the 

 felte separating Yorkshire from West- 

 morland, where every little clump of 

 trees appears to hold its pair of 

 birds. 



The bright, rusty-red colour of the 

 tail of the male and his habit of 

 constantly shaking it render him easy 

 of identification, but alas ! not of photo- 

 graphy. The individual figured in our 

 coloured plate was engaged in feeding his 



18 137 



young ones in a deep, dark wood, where 

 it was impossible to take snapshots, and 

 I am afraid to say how many plates I 

 exposed upon him before I succeeded in 

 rendering his caudal appendage anything 

 more definite than a misty blur. The 

 female is not as brightly coloured as her 

 mate. She lacks the black and white 

 on her head, and her tail quills are of 

 a more sober hue. 



The male Redstart is a strenuous 

 vocalist, commencing very early in the 

 morning and continuing until late at 

 night. His refrain is short but sweet, 

 and to my ear bears a considerable 

 resemblance to that of the pied fly- 

 catcher. The call note is very dis- 

 tinctive, and sounds something like the 

 words wee-tit-tit. 



This species builds in holes in old 

 moss-clad stone walls, in decaying tree 

 trunks, and in crevices and fissures in 

 the rock. I once found a nest in the 

 thatch of a hayrick, and have several 



