282 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



dunes, between the sea and the marsh, I noticed a 

 small, unfamiliar bird, robin-like in appearance, but 

 darker and without the red waistcoat, flitting in a 

 sprightly manner about the old crumbling walls. 

 By-and-by his flittings and little dashes after passing 

 flies brought him to a perch within five yards of me; 

 and sitting there, curiously eyeing me, drooping his 

 wings and flirting a broad tail, he stood revealed — 

 a black redstart! A happy experience: in all that 

 empty desolate place I could not have met with a 

 more engaging stranger, nor one more friendly. For 

 he is first cousin to our pretty firetail with a sweet 

 little summer song, only our redstart is a shy bird, 

 whereas this black redstart was tamer than any 

 robin. I took it that he was resting a day on the 

 dunes after his perilous flight over the North Sea, 

 and that he came from Holland, where he is common 

 and breeds fearlessly in and on the houses. That is 

 why he was so confident, also why he eyed me so 

 curiously, for he knew by the look of me that I was 

 not a Dutchman. More than that he did not know, 

 and he had no letter tied to his wing; nevertheless, 

 he had a greeting and a message for me from that 

 country and that people, who, among the nations 

 of the Continent, are most like the English in kind- 

 ness to animals as well as in some other things, but 

 are better than we are in their treatment of birds. 



On another day I stole into the pine wood growing 

 on the sand-hills by the sea, and in the heart of the 

 wood came to a deep basin-like depression in the 

 sand, and there I seated myself on the rim or margin 



