40 REDSTART. 
Siberia, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. It is known also 
in Asia Minor, Persia, and Japan. 
In this country ib is least frequent on the western side of 
the island, but occurs in Cornwall and Wales, as well as in 
Yorkshire and Suffolk, Kent, Surrey, and Middlesex, Norfolk, 
Northumberland, Berkshire, Derbyshire, and Westmorland, 
and even in Sutherlandshire and other parts of Scotland; it 
breeds commonly about the wooded glens and gardens near | 
Dunrobin Castle in that county, as also in Linlithgowshire 
and Hdinburghshire. 
In Ireland it is very rare: one was shot many years ago 
near Belfast in December, 1828, and another in the same 
neighbourhood; one, about the year 1830, near Kingstown; 
and one at Tanderagee, in the county of Armagh; at least 
there seems no doubt that the birds were all of this species: 
one was shot in the Queen’s County in February, 1847. 
In Orkney it is but an occasional visitor: a specimen was. 
shot at Grainback, near Kirkwall, on the 24th. of May, 1847, 
and one in Sanday, by Mr. H. Moncrieff, in the winter of 
1844. In the outer Hebrides it has not been noticed. 
It is of a somewhat timid nature, but when the hen bird 
is sitting, the male is more than ordinarily visible in con- 
spicuous situations near the nest: after the breeding season 
both birds retire rather further from observation. “They are 
the most restless and suspicious of birds durimg this season of 
hatching and rearing their young; for when the female is 
sitting, her mate attentively watches over her safety, giving 
immediate notice of the approach of any seemingly hostile 
thing, by a constant repetition of one or two querulous notes, 
monitory to her, or menacing to an intruder: but when the 
young are hatched, the very appearance of any suspicious 
creature sets the parents into an agony of agitation, and 
perching upon some dead branch or post, they persevere in 
one unceasing clamour till the object of their fear is removed: 
a Magpie near their haunts, with some reason, excites their 
terror greatly, which is expressed with unremitting vocitferation. 
All this parental anxiety, however, is no longer in operation 
than during the helpless state of their offsprmg; which being 
enabled to provide their own requirements, gradually cease 
to be the objects of solicitude and care; they retire to some 
distant hedge, become shy and timid things, feeding in un- 
obtrusive silence.’ . 
It is of migratory habits, and visits us for a summer 
