34 BLACK REDSTART. 
more or less sedentary in Southern Europe, and even in the 
mountains of North Africa, where it breeds at a considerable 
elevation. Eastward its range appears to extend to the Southern 
Ural, Asia Minor, and Palestine ; in winter, to Nubia. 
Breeding begins early in May; the nest, composed of dried grass, 
moss, and fine roots, with a lining of hair and feathers, being placed, 
with little attempt at concealment, in sheds, holes of walls, chalets, 
or clefts of rocks, up to 7,500 feet. The 5-6 eggs are of a pure 
shining white, sometimes with a very faint tinge of blue, and 
occasionally speckled with brown: measurements °75 by ‘58 in. 
Two broods are usually produced in the season. The call-note is a 
soft sé¢ or fitz, and the male has a rather rich song, which he 
commences very early in the morning. In Belgium he begins to 
sing again in October. From his familiar habits the Black Red- 
start is one of the most conspicuous species on the Continent, as, 
jerking his tail, he flits along the sides of ravines in the country or 
the roofs of houses in cities; even in London one frequented the 
grounds of the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, from 
November, 1885, until the snow-fall of January 6th, 1886. Refuse, 
manure-heaps and sea-tangle seem to have great attractions for 
this bird. Its food consists principally of insects, caterpillars, and, 
on our sea-coasts, of small crustaceans. 
Adult male: frontal band and lores black ; crown, nape and back 
dark slate-grey ; wings brownish, with a conspicuous white patch 
formed by the broad white margins to the secondaries ; rump and 
tail, except the two brown central-feathers, bright bay ; chin, throat, 
cheeks and breast black, passing into grey on the belly; vent buff; 
bill, legs and feet black. In younger males the wing-patch is less 
pronounced. After the autumn moult the black feathers of the 
under parts have grey margins, which so soon wear off that in Spain 
I have seen old males in splendid black plumage by the end of 
November. Length 5°75 in. ; wing, to the tip of the fourth and 
longest primary, 34 in. Female: greyer on both upper and lower 
parts than the female Common Redstart, and her axillaries and 
under wing-coverts grey instead of buff. The young resemble the 
female. Young males often breed in their immature grey plumage ; 
and owing to this, a supposed distinct psecies, since withdrawn, was 
described by Gerbe under the name of 2. cairii. The full black 
plumage is not attained by the male until the second autumnal 
moult, and even then the intensity of the dark colour is considerably 
modified by the long grey margins of the feathers. 
