BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 13 
Mr. R. Service, is labelled : " Rather local. A summer- 
visitant. Inhabits woods and orchards ; building in 
holes of trees, and in walls." 
The present distribution of the Redstart in the county 
is difficult to define, for it is unaccountably absent from 
many suitable localities. It would seem to be uncommon 
in the upland and littoral districts, and elsewhere by no 
means generally dispersed. 
It arrives in the latter half of April or beginning of May, 
and departs for its winter-quarters on the southern shores 
of the Mediterranean, at the end of August or in September. 
H. A. Macpherson records that in June, 1888, Mr. Bell, 
of Liddelbank, Dumfriesshire, found on the banks of 
the Liddel " the nest of a Redstart built into an old nest 
of a Song-Thrush. The Thrush's nest measured about 
four inches across, and that of the Redstart two inches and 
one-fifth inside measurement ; the former was placed 
in a thick thorn-bush, and was therefore open to the sky, 
though well screened by branches above."* 
The pale blue eggs closely resemble those of the Hedge- 
Sparrow, but have been recorded as being faintly spotted 
with brown at the larger end.-f 
[THE BLACK REDSTART. Ruticilla titys (Scopoli). 
There is no authentic record of the occurrence of this species 
in the county. Two allegations of its having bred here 
have appeared in print, and have been subsequently 
quoted by other authors, but cannot be upheld. 
The first is by Robert Gray, who states : "I have 
been informed by Mr. George Kirkpatrick that in 1858 he 
found a nest and eggs at Duncow near Dumfries, which 
he could not make out to belong to any other than this 
* Zoologist, 1888, Vol. XII., p. 352. 
t Trans. D. and G, Nat. Hist. Soc.y December 4th, 1885. 
