1A BIOS ISLE 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 effect. 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 differences 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 Redshank, 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 ascertained 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 phenicurus 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 
1 On 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. 
