776 REDSTART 



forehead, the black throat and bright bay breast of the cock, 

 renders him conspicuous, even if attention be not drawn by his 

 lively and pleasing though short and intermittent song. The hen 

 is much more plainly attired ; but the characteristic colouring and 

 action of the tail pertain to her equally as to her mate. The nest 

 is almost always placed in a hole, whether of a tree or of a more or 

 less ruined building, and contains from five to seven eggs of a 

 delicate greenish-blue, occasionally sprinkled with faint red spots. 

 The young on assuming their feathers present a great resemblance 

 to those of the Redbreast at the same age ; but the red tail, 

 though of duller hue than in the adult, forms even at this early 

 age an easy means of distinguishing them. The Redstart breeds 

 regularly in all the counties of England and Wales ; but, except in 

 such localities as have been already named, it is seldom plentiful. 

 It also reaches the extreme north of Scotland ; but in Ireland it is 

 of very rare occurrence. It appears throughout the whole of 

 Europe in summer, and is known to winter in the interior of 

 Africa. To the eastward its limits cannot yet be exactly defined, 

 as several very nearly allied forms occur in Asia ; and one, B. 

 aurorea, represents it in Japan. 



A congeneric species which has received the name of Black 

 Redstart,^ R. titi/s,^ is very common throughout the greater part of 

 the European continent, where, from its partiality for gardens in 

 towns and villages, it is often better known than the preceding 

 species. It yearly occurs in certain parts of England, chiefly along 

 or near the south coast, and curiously enough during the autumn 

 and winter, since it is in central Europe only a summer visitor, and 

 it has by no means the high northern range of B. phcenicurus. The 

 males of the Black Redstart seem to be more than one year in 

 acquiring their full plumage (a rare thing in Passerine birds), and 

 since they have been known to breed in the intermediate stage, this 

 fact has led to such birds being- accounted a distinct species under 

 the name of B. cairii, thereby perplexing ornithologists for a long 

 while, though now almost all authorities agree that these birds are, 

 in one sense, immature. 



More than a dozen species of the genus ButicUla have been 

 described, and the greater number of them seem to belong to the 

 Himalayan Subregion or its confines. One very pretty and 

 interesting form is the B. moussieri of Barbary, which no doubt 



^ The author of a popular -work on British birds has suggested for this 

 species the name of " Blackstart," thereby recording his ignorance of the 

 meaning of the second syllable of the compound name as already explained, for 

 the Black Redstart has a tail as red as that of the commoner English bu'd. 



^ The orthography of the specific term would seem to be litis, a word 

 possibly cognate with the first syllable of Titlark and Titmouse (Ann. Nat. 

 Mist. ser. 4, x. p. 227). 



