TURDIDAE—REDSTARTS. 79
Writing from Epping in 1832, Henry Doubleday fays (10): "The Redstart
has arrived this year in immense numbers. I never saw half so many before." A
little latter he describes it (10)
as " more abundant than I ever
knew it before. The forest liter-
ally swarms with them. Some
females j [were] sitting on the
last day of April." Mr. Buxton
says (47. 90) it is now " frequent
in summer and a great ornament
to our Forest." Mr. Clarke de-
scribes it (24) as " common in
summer" round Saffron Wal-
den. King says (20) :it was redstart, male, 1/3.
'"common" at Sudbury in his (After Bewick.)
time (1840), and Mr. Grubb includes it (39) in his list of Sudbury birds.
Round Harwich, Mr. Kerry says a few breed; he adds that they were very
common during the autumn migration in 1888. After the excavations in 1878,
at the site of the supposed Saxon cemetery in the grounds of the late Mr. George
Stacey Gibson, at Saffron Walden, when nearly two hundred skeletons were dis-
covered, a Redstart made its nest and reared four young in one of the skulls during
the time it remained exposed. Access to the interior was obtained through the eye
orbit. The skull and nest, which I have seen, are still in the possession of Mrs. Gib-
son (34. 5042 & 5116). Lieut. Vincent Legge, R.A., writing from South Shoe-
bury in 1865, says (23. 9836) : " This bird is very plentiful about here, frequenting
particularly those parts where the pollard willows most abound. * * * I never
saw them so plentiful in any part of England, and most probably it is on account
of the numbers of these trees, which line the ditches in the marshy districts
that are so common here," and for which he says they have a special predilec-
tion. In 1865 their eggs were laid " for the most part by the last week in April."
Black Redstart: Ruticilla titys.
A regular, though uncommon, winter visitor to the extreme south-
west of England but rare
and occasional elsewhere.
I only know of its having
occurred twice or thrice in
Essex. A recorded instance
of its having bred in the
county is, I am satisfied,
wholly erroneous.*
Mr. Kerry records one (40.
iii. 306) shot at Ramsey on April
14th, 1879, and he informs me of
another seen at Dovercourt in
December, 1887. The Rev, H. black redstart, male, 1/3.
* Mr. W. R. Ogilvie Grant has recorded (40. 390 & 50. ii. 192 & 256) this more than doubtful