ON THE GENUS PHCENICURA AND THE BLUE BREAST, 



(Motacilla Suecica, LINN.&US.) 



BV EDWARD BLYTH. 



THE term Phcenicura (signifying, literally, red-tail), is now usually 

 employed to designate that genus of birds, to which the common red- 

 start and robin, of this country, belong : the name, however, is cer- 

 tainly not very applicable to the robin, one of its most distinguished 

 members, but it is one which is, nevertheless, passable, it being, 

 perhaps, impossible to devise a perfectly unexceptionable term. The 

 three described European species of this genus have each a curious and 

 very remarkable motion of the tail: the common redstart's tail (Ph. 

 ruticilla,) shakes not horizontally, as it has been represented but as 

 if it were nearly detached from the body ; as if loose, and ready to 

 fall off: being almost constantly moving in this remarkable manner 

 it gives the bird a most singular appearance. The redstart never 

 alights on a spray without giving its tail one of these curious shakes, 

 consisting of three or four quick oscillations, each less than the pre- 

 ceding, and the last hardly perceptible. The black redstart, (Ph. 

 Tethys,') also, shakes its tail, but in a different manner from the Ph. 

 ruticilla. The black redstart's tail is not in such continual motion as 

 that of the common redstart, but whenever he alights on a bough, he 

 always gives it, (I hardly know how to express it better,) four or five 

 slight wags in quick succession ; the motion not ceasing gradually, as 

 in the common red-start, but each successive shake or wag being equal 

 to the first. The robin-redbreast, (Ph. rubicula,} has a strange tre- 

 mulous motion of the tail, which has, I believe, never yet been noticed : 

 indeed, it can be observed only in tame caged birds, it being so small 

 and quick, as to be imperceptible at the distance of a yard ; I have, 

 however, many times observed it. 



The common redstart is a very expert fly-catcher ; a tame one that 

 I once kept in confinement would, if turned loose into a room, in a 

 very short time rid it of every fly ; flying first to the windows, and 

 catching all that he could see there ; then examining the walls and 

 ceiling, hovering all the time in a very curious manner, and at length, 

 after having seized every fly that he could see settled, he would take 

 la's stand on a picture- frame, and dart after those which were flying 

 about, catching them in the manner of a fly-catcher, (Mugeicapa,) 



