228 
W. BICKERTON—NOTES ON BIRDS 
I at first thought was an ordinary redstart (Rnticilla phoenicunis) 
perched on a heap of builders’ refuse just within the boundary- 
wall. On getting nearer, however, I had no difficulty in identifying 
it as the male black redstart, and I had him under observation for 
something like ten minutes. He perched on the wall, he perched 
on the waste-heap, and he perched on a pile of timber that was 
there, but he never went near either bush, tree, or hedge. Finally 
he made off down the side of the railway embankment. I might 
add that a light snow was falling at the time. 
This interesting bird was formerly considered very rare in 
England, but more careful and more extensive observations have 
established the fact that it visits our southern counties, and 
especially Devon and Cornwall, every autumn and winter, 
generally remaining until March or April. 
Mr. Howard Saunders states: “ It is common in Western 
Germany, where it arrives about the middle of March, but it is 
not plentiful in the north-eastern districts. From Holland south¬ 
ward it is, however, abundant in summer, migrating from the 
countries on the north of the Alps in winter, but becoming more 
or less sedentary in Southern Europe, and even in the mountains 
of North Africa, where it breeds at a considerable elevation. 
Eastward its range appears to extend to the Southern TJral, Asia 
Minor, and Palestine; in winter to Nubia.” 
Those of you who have read Mr. W. Warde Fowler’s delightful 
sketches of the bird-life of the Alps will remember that he describes 
the black redstart as the representative bird of the higher Alpine 
valleys during the summer months. He further states :— 
“ The commonest bird of all in the Engelberg valley is one 
which we seldom see in England, and never in the summer. This 
is the black redstart, a bird which has a wide summer distribution 
all over Europe, and is found in Switzerland at all altitudes, 
suiting itself to all temperatures. Wherever there is a chalet 
under the eaves of which it can build, there it is to be found as 
soon as spring has begun to appear, even though the snow is lying 
all around. I have found it myself nesting in chalets before the 
herdsmen and oows had arrived there; and at a height of 6,000 feet 
or more it has woke me at dawn with its song: yet at the same 
time it is abounding in the plains of France and Germany, and 
nowhere have I seen greater numbers than in the park at Luxem¬ 
bourg. It is one of the puzzles of ornithology that in spite of 
this the bird never comes to England in the summer, and that 
the stragglers that do visit us always appear as winter visitants, 
straying to our foggy shores as if bv mistake, when they ought 
to be on their way to the sunny south. 
. “ The little ‘ Rothel,’ as they call him, is a great favourite with 
the Swiss peasantry; he is trustful and musical, and will sing 
sometimes when you are within a few feet of him. They are 
sorry to part with him in autumn, and cannot make out what 
becomes of him. One of them told me that twenty-two of these 
birds were once found in the winter fast asleep in a cluster, like 
