334 On the Nesting of the Black Redstart.


her, Mr. Galloway, once sent me a supposed hen which, at the

ensuing spring moult, declared itself to be a male, and Dr.

Thwaites sent me the skin of a young male (as sexed by a

taxidermist) which had died at the commencement of February,

and a close examination of the plumage revealed no other indi¬

cation of sex than the fact that the breast feathers were darker

along the quill. The explanation seems to be that young male

Blackstarts assume an eclipse plumage upon moulting the nest

plumage, or some part of the latter. As I write (16th Aug.) the

young have commenced to moult and are evidently becoming

lighter, but I am prevented by our “eight weeks rule” (which

for this very reason I have never thought a very wise one) from

including an account of the moult in these notes.


A young migrating Redstart, which insisted on coming

into the house, despite several evictions, and which was therefore

caged on the 14th July, shed the mottled nest plumage a week

later, and I think, therefore, that we may assume that this moult

takes place in the case of both species at the age of about five

weeks. The contrast between the young of the two species is,

however, very marked. A young male Redstart looks very like

a young Robin, but a young male Blackstart, as I have said

above, closely resembles an adult male, except for the area of

white on the wing of the latter. The Redstart began to sing on

17th July (three days after its capture!) and one of the young

Blackstarts on 14th August.


The young “House-red-tails” were exceedingly clever at

hiding themselves, after leaving the nest, and it was often very

difficult to locate them even in their tiny aviary. As I mentioned,

under the head of environment, this aviary was built in a corner

where two old cob walls met, and into the crannies and crevices

of these walls they used to creep and squat motionless ; they

would also squat in old nests in the shrubs and even on the

ground. Another point that impressed me was that, even when

perched in a conspicuous position on an apricot tree trained

against the wall they would remain absolutely motionless, with

tails held rigid, until they saw that they had been observed, when

their tails would at once begin to quiver in the manner so

characteristic of this species. With regard to this latter point:



