these distinctions,—that the male possesses a song, which one
observer, Dovaston (Mag. Nat. Hist. v. p. 83), says is extremely
like that of the Redstart, its notes being varied and
pleasing ; that the nest is almost invariably placed in the
hole of a decayed tree or of a building ; and that the birds
are exceedingly noisy and clamorous when their retreat is
approached. Mr. T. C. Heysham has furnished the information
that—
“ In the season of 1830, a pair had a nest in the identical
hole where this species had bred for four successive
years. On the 14th of May this nest contained eight eggs,
arranged in the following manner: one lay at the bottom,
and the remainder were all regularly placed perpendicularly
round the sides of the nest, with the smaller ends resting
upon it, the effect of which was exceedingly beautiful.”
Its nest is a loose assemblage of roots and grass, with a
few dry leaves, sometimes of a large size, dead bents, and
hair : the eggs measure from ‘73 to -64 by from ‘55 to -5 in.,
or exceptionally small ones only -52 by ’43 in., and are of a
uniform pale greenisli-blue colour, with occasionally a few
fine specks of reddish-brown. The young are hatched about
the first or second week in June. Mr. Blackwall has recorded
(Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. xv. p. 167) an instance in which
the young of a pair, which had for a long series of years
occupied in safety a hole in his father’s house, were stung to
death by a swarm of bees, whereupon in the following year
the birds still finding themselves molested by the bees repaired
to a hole in a neighbouring wall.
Pennant mentions an example of this bird killed near
Uxbridge in Middlesex ; and a good many have since been
observed in the same county, as well as in all those of the
south and east from Cornwall to Norfolk. In the midlands
it appears more rarely, but it has been noticed once or of'tener
ip Leicester, Derby, Stafford, Worcester and Hereford.
Further north its occurrence is less irregular, and in some
parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Durham and, as
above stated, certain localities in the Lake district, it has its
headquarters in England, though it also breeds yearly in a
i— S j S S S S r
few places in North Wales, and the English counties of the
Welsh border, and is recorded as having occasionally done so
in North Devon, Somerset, Gloucester, Oxford, Wilts, Dorset,
the Isle of Wight, Surrey and Norfolk.
From thence northward it has been noticed, according to
Mr. Robert Gray, along the eastern side of Scotland, from
Berwickshire to Caithness, while Mr. E. S. Hargitt has
obtained its eggs from Invernessshire, and Messrs. Baikie
and Heddle say that it is often seen in the Orkneys. I t has
not been observed in Ireland. Herr H. C, Muller states that
it has once occurred in the Fmroes, and it is a common
summer-visitant throughout Norway and Sweden, breeding
so far as lat. 68° N., while it occasionally appears even on
the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and it is found in the interior
of Finland. Its eastern limits cannot be traced, but it
seems to be rare in most parts of Russia, though common,
according to Von Nordmann, in the southern governments.
De Filippi includes it among the birds of Western Persia.
It is a very scarce summer-visitant to Palestine, though
remaining there to breed. Dr. von Heuglin observed it in
Egypt, but only on its northward passage. Mr. Sharpe has
received it from the Gambia. MM. Webb and Berthelot
found it in Teneriffe. Mr. Drake saw it in Morocco, and
several naturalists have observed it in Algeria. Returning
to Europe, it is common in spring in Portugal and Spain
and breeds, according to Mr. H. Saunders, in Andalucia.
Thence it is pretty generally distributed through the rest of
the continent and occurs on the islands of the Mediterranean.
A male killed in the spring, immediately on the arrival of
the species in this country, has the beak black; the irides
dark brown; the forehead white; head, neck, back, and greater
wing-coverts, a mixture of dusky and pure black; rump
and upper tail-coverts smoke-grey; primaries dusky black;
smaller wing-coverts smoke-grey; greater wing-coverts and
tertials broadly edged with white ; tail of twelve feathers,
the outer and part of the inner web next the shaft of the
outer and second pairs white, the third pair white on a small
portion of the outer web only, all the rest of these and the