REDSTART 775 



larger bird. Above, the general colour is greyish -drab, freckled 

 with black, except the lower part of the back and a conspicuous 

 band on each wing, which are white, while the flight -quills are 

 black, thus producing a very harmonious eftect. In the breeding- 

 season the back and breast are mottled with dark brown, but in 

 winter the latter is white. The nest is generally concealed in a 

 tuft of rushes or grass, a little removed from the wettest parts of 

 the swamp whence the bird gets its sustenance, and contains four 

 eggs, usually of a rather warmly-tinted brown with blackish spots 

 or blotches ; but no brief description can be given that would point 

 out their diiferences from the eggs of other birds, more or less akin, 

 among which, those of the Lapwing especially, they are taken and 

 find a ready sale. 



The name Kedshank, prefixed by some epithet as Black, Dusky, 

 or Spotted, has also been applied to a larger but allied species — the 

 T.fuscus of ornithologists. This is a much less common bird, and in 

 Great Britain as well as the greater part of Europe it only occurs 

 on its passage to or from its breeding-grounds, which are usually 

 found north of the Arctic Circle, and differ much from those of its 

 congeners — the spot chosen for the nest being nearly always in the 

 midst of forests and, though not in the thickest part of them, often 

 with trees on all sides, generally where a fire has cleared the under- 

 growth, and mostly at some distance from water. This peculiar 

 habit was first ascei'tained by Wolley in Lapland in 1853 and the 

 following year. The breeding-dress this bird assumes is also very 

 remarkable, and seems (as is suggested) to have some correlation 

 with the burnt and blackened surface interspersed with white 

 stones or tufts of lichen on which its nest is made — for the head, 

 neck, shoulders and lower parts are of a deep black, contrasting 

 vividly with the pure white of the back and rump, while the legs 

 become of an intense crimson. At other times of the year the 

 plumage is very similar to that of the common Redshank, and the 

 legs are of the same light orange-red. 



REDSTART, a bird well known in Great Britain, in many 

 parts of which it is called Firetail — a name of almost the same 

 meaning, since "start" is from the Anglo-Saxon steort, a tail.^ 

 This beautiful bird, the Ruticilla phoenicurus of most ornithologists, 

 returns to England about the middle or towards the end of April, 

 and at once takes up its abode in gardens, orchards and about old 

 buildings, when its curious habit of flirting at nearly every change 

 of position its brightly-coloured tail, together with the pure white 



^ Oa this point the articles "Stark-naked" and "Start" in Prof. Skeat's 

 Etymological Dictionary may be usefully consulted ; but the connexion between 

 these words would be still more evident had this bird's habit of quickly moving 

 its tail been known to the learned author. 



