Birds. 101 



The following captures of the black redstart have come to my 

 knowledge. One was caught some years since at Lariggan, between 

 Penzance and Newlyn, by some boys who were bird-catching in the 

 winter ; this is supposed to be a female, and is now in the collection 

 of Mr. Rodd. A second example was shot near Marazion, in Janua- 

 ry, 1842, by Mr. Vingoe, naturalist of this town ; this was a male, and 

 is now in the Penzance Museum. A third specimen of this bird was 

 shot also near Lariggan, in December, 1842 ; this was a female, and 

 is now in the possession of Mr. Tuke, of York. A fourth example, 

 which proved to be a male, was shot by myself near Marazion marsh, 

 on the 8th of February, 1843. 



Besides these captures, I have information of three of these birds 

 having been seen in different localities near this place ; and I have 

 little doubt of the correctness of my informants, as they are not likely 

 to have confounded them with females of the common redstart [Phoe- 

 nicura ruticilla), that species having never, to my knowledge, been 

 1 seen so far west as Penzance, though a few are said to occur in the 

 east of Cornwall. 



Neither of the male examples killed here has any black about the 

 neck or breast, and are therefore, I suppose, both immature : or does 

 this bird always lose its black garb in the winter, as some here seem 

 to suspect ? Information on this point would be very acceptable, as 

 no ornithologists, whose works I have seen, notice it, neither do they 

 say where these birds pass the winter ; it seems probable, from all 

 the examples seen and procured here having occurred in the winter, 

 that many at least pass that period not far from our shores. 



The bird which I saw myself was flying about in the haunts of the 

 stonechat [Saxicola ruhicola), and appeared to me, in its general ac- 

 tion, and particularly in perching on the summit of every eminence, 

 to exhibit more of the habits of that species, than its congener the 

 common redstart does. — Alfred Greenwood ; Penzance, February 

 18, 1843. 



Note on the late departure of the Swallow in 1842. I have re- 

 ceived and perused the only two numbers of * The Zoologist ' yet out : 

 I approve the plan of the work and mean to continue it. There is 

 ample room and even call for a work of the kind. Is it worth re- 

 cording in a corner of * The Zoologist,' that I observed a single 

 swallow [Hiriindo rustica), on the 8th of December, sporting back- 

 wards and forwards under the cliffs below Dover castle, between 2 

 and 3 in the afternoon ? It was a cold raw day, calm and without 

 sun ; wind N.E. by N. I watched him for a good while, and looked 



