( 417 ) 



THE STATUS OF THE BLACK REDSTART IN ENGLAND 

 AS A BREEDING SPECIES. 



By the Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, M.A., M.B.O.U. 



It is one of the many remarkable facts connected with migra- 

 tion, that though the breeding grounds of the Black Redstart 

 (Phoenicurus ochrurus gibraltariensis) lie for the most part to the 

 south of the British Isles, yet this species winters in fair 

 numbers along our southern coast and the adjacent counties, 

 and occurs on the spring passage every year in March and April, 

 sometimes even in May. As it breeds freely on the other side 

 of the Channel, it would not be very surprising to find it nesting 

 in our south-eastern counties, but hitherto all the evidence of 

 this has been extremely unsatisfactory. 



Let us consider the supposed cases of breeding in chrono- 

 logical order. 



The first statement to this affect was made by J. C. Bellamy, 

 the author of the ' Natural History of South Devon ' (1839), who 

 asserted that it had been known to breed at Exeter. No 

 further details are given, and the record was obviously not given 

 on his own authority, so that in default of confirmation in more 

 recent times, it may be passed over as far too vague to be accepted. 



The next occurrence is, however, more definite. 



John Hancock, in his ' Catalogue of the Birds of North- 

 umberland and Durham,' (1874), after describing this species as 

 an " extremely rare " Spring and Autumn migrant, states that a 

 Zool. 4th ser., vol. XX., November, 1916. kk 



