170 
SYLVIAM. 
the extreme north”* of the latter country. Nowhere are there 
districts apparently better suited to this very handsome and inter- 
esting bird than in Ireland. Its absence as a summer visitor to 
our isle I have always regretted, when meeting with it in localities 
of various character in England; as about the Great Park at 
Windsor; the trim and old fashioned grounds at Hampton Court; 
the rich and wooded districts of Norfolk; the picturesque Matlock, 
in Derbyshire; and amid the stern grandeur of the scenery about 
Langdale Pikes, in Westmoreland. My information on the species 
as Irish, simply is, that a specimen was shot many years ago in 
the autumn, in the neighbourhood of Belfast, and when recent 
was obtained by Dr. J. D. Marshall; it proved to be P. ruticilla, 
when compared with English specimens in his collection: it has 
unfortunately been destroyed by moths. The same gentleman pro- 
cured a fresh specimen which was killed near Dublin, in Decem- 
ber, 1828. In the collection of T. W. Warren, Esq., of that 
city, I have seen one of these birds which was shot about the 
year 1830, near Kingstown. I have heard of another being 
killed near Dublin, and one at Tanderagee, in the county of 
Armagh. That all these birds were redstarts of some species, 
there can be no doubt, but whether or not P. ruticilla is uncertain. 
This species came under my notice in Switzerland ; and when 
proceeding from Malta to the Morea, in 1841, one of them mi- 
grating from the south on the 25th of April, alighted on H.M. S. 
Beacon and was captured : the nearest land was Calabria, distant 
about 60 miles. Dr. J. L. Drummond informs me, that when 
H.M.S. Benown (74), of which he was assistant-surgeon, was 
lying off Gibraltar in spring, redstarts on migration flew on board, 
some of which were taken. 
* Macgillivray, vol. ii. p. 308. Mr. St. John, too, mentions it as a regular sum- 
mer visitant to Morayshire. “ Wild Sports, &c.” p. 139. 
