NOTES ON THE BIBDS OF BELGIUM. 153 



from the almost universal plan of house-feeding the cows, and is 

 to the advantage of the Black Redstart, for flies and other in- 

 sects swarm. The male occasionally, when flying from one spot 

 to another, finishes its flight with wings thrown up and tail 

 somewhat spread. Seen thus against a dark background it is a 

 pretty object, the red tail being very conspicuous. Although 

 more than one male was located within easy earshot of my bed- 

 room window in Dinant, it was only in the very early hours of the 

 day — before the dog-carts and trolleys and long, narrow country 

 carts began their frightful rattle and din on the sharp-edged 

 rough stones with which the streets are so vilely paved — that I 

 could hear the song well. But if you are awake at dawn, while it 

 is yet too dark to see the birds, you can hear the song to per- 

 fection. The song of one bird, written down there, was some- 

 times " chy wy wy wy wy (quickly) chee e eo," or " chich wich wich 

 tich (quickly) itchyty (confused and internal) cheeo weo dee " 

 (clear and sweet). It is, perhaps, the crystal clearness and 

 brightness of the song, with its rather shrill tone, which makes 

 this pure, sweet song carry so far. And it is this characteristic 

 purity and clearness which constitutes its individuality. It is 

 probable that two broods of young may be reared by some pairs. 

 On June 4th full-fledged young sat with quivering, hardly fully- 

 grown tails, on a heap of ancient stones piled up in an angle 

 between the Norman church and the wall in the neglected 

 churchyard at Hastiere. 



Erithacus rubecula. — A good many seen and heard in the 

 woods ; also some in the gardens at the back of the Casino at 

 Dinant, which include a piece of the steep wooded rocky 

 hillside. 



Daulias luscinia. — Could be heard from the hotel at night and 

 early in the morning ; haunted the Casino gardens and the rest 

 of the wooded cliffs at the back of Dinant, and all possible loca- 

 lities. In the woods it was abundant, and really rather a nuisance 

 sometimes when one was trying to listen to other birds. I 

 listened in one wood to a babel of sound produced by three 

 Nightingales, a Garden Warbler, a Robin, a ChiflchafF, and a 

 Chaffinch, all singing at once, and not far apart. Some young 

 birds were probably hatched by the 3rd, as I heard the sharp 

 " whit " and the croak from one anxious pair, and the croak 



