TURDINA. 31 
THE REDSTART. 
RUTICILLA PHENICURUS (Linnzus). 
The date of the arrival of the Redstart is to some extent in- 
fluenced by the prevailing temperature in the early spring: in 
1893 I watched a male on March 31st, while several were recorded 
by other observers on 1st April. As a rule, however, it is not until 
the middle of April that the males attract attention by their bright 
plumage, as they flit, with lateral movements of the tail, from one 
low branch to another, along the skirts of the English woodlands. 
Although generally diffused throughout Great Britain, especially in the 
south, the Redstart is often unaccountably partial in its distribution ; 
being uncommon to the west of Exeter, an unusual breeder in 
Cornwall, only an autumn visitor to the Scilly Islands, and rare in 
Pembrokeshire, though fairly plentiful in other parts of Wales. 
In Scotland it has of late years spread northwards; now breeding 
freely in the Moray basin, and only less so in Sutherland, Caithness 
and West Ross; but its visits to the Orkneys and Shetlands are chiefly 
autumnal, and in the Hebrides it is as yet unrecorded. In Ireland 
several pairs are now known to nest annually in co. Wicklow, and 
the bird has recently been found breeding in co. Tyrone. 
On the Continent the Redstart is found in summer from the 
North Cape to the wooded regions of Central, and even Southern 
Europe, although better known in the latter on its spring and 
