24 WARBLER. 



16.— GREY REDSTART. 



Sylvia Gibralta lien sis, Ind. Orn. ii. 513. 



Ruticilla Gibraltariensis, Bris. iii. 407. Id. 8vo. i. 424. Gm. Lin. i. 987. 

 Sylvia corpore griseo gutture nigro, Klein, 80. 25. 

 Rossignol de Muraille de Gibraltar, Biif. v. 177. 



Grey Redstart, Gen. Syn. iv. 423. Arct. Zool. ii. 417. C. Edw. pi. 29. Shaw's 

 Zool. x. 673. 



THE length of the male is six inches or more ; breadth ten ; the 

 weight three quarters of an ounce. Bill brown, inside of the mouth 

 bright yellow ; the forehead, cheeks, eyes, and throat, are black ; 

 breast black, and iron-grey mixed ; lower belly lighter grey ; crown 

 of the head ash-colour ; back, and wing coverts dark iron-grey ; the 

 lower part of the back blue grey; rump tawny red; tail the same, 

 slightly tipped with brown ; the two middle feathers dark brown, 

 edged with red, and shorter than the rest ; quills dark brown, slightly 

 bordered with white; seven of the longer secondaries have half of 

 their webs white, forming a broad white bar; thighs barred across 

 with white and black ; legs black. 



In the female, the head, neck, and back, are dusky olive ; chin 

 whitish, obscurely spotted ; throat and breast dusky brown ; belly 

 lighter brown ; quills brown ; secondaries lightly edged with white ; 

 tail tawny red, as in the male, but with a broader bar at the tip ; no 

 black in any part. 



The above inhabits Gibraltar, and its neighbourhood, throughout 

 the year, and abounds in all parts of the district, especially the retired 

 parts of the Rock ; is a solitary and shy bird, seldom coming into 

 the town : the male is a much finer songster than the Redstart, and 

 although, in the formation of the bill, &c. it is not materially different 

 from that bird ; the circumstance of its remaining there continually, 

 whilst the Redstart migrates annually, is not easily accounted for. 



