RUTICILLINE. 207 
is usually built in holes in rocks, buildings, walls, wells, and banks. 
Should the site selected not be suitable, they make an embank- 
ment of small stones, pellets of dry mud, &c., extending several 
inches beyond the nest. 
The eggs, generally three or four in number, are moderately 
broad oval in shape, of a pale blue-color, more or less spotted 
with reddish-brown; these spots occasionally form a nimbus 
round the large end. They measure 0°82 in length by 0°62 m 
breadth. 
During the time of incubation, and while rearing their young, 
they are extremely pugnacious, attacking any small bird, squirrel, 
or lizard that ventures near. 
Sus-Famity, Ruticilline. 
Bill, slender with tip entire; rictal bristles fairly developed ; 
wings and tail various ; tarsi long, slender. 
Genus, Ruticilla, Brehm. 
Bill rather short, straight, slender, slightly notched; rictus 
nearly smooth; wings moderately long, pointed; first primary 
about one-third the length of the fourth, fifth and sixth equal and 
longest; tail moderate, even or slightly rounded ; lateral toes 
nearly equal, hind-toe not much lengthened; claws slender, 
moderately curved. 
Ruticilla rufiventris, Vzez/. 
497.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 137; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 478 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 
IX, p. 405; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 146; 
Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885. 
THE INDIAN REDSTART. 
Length, 6; expanse, 10; wing, 3°5; tail, 2°55; tarsus, 1; bill 
from gape, 0°6 ; bill at front, 0-4. 
Bill black ; irides brown ; legs black. 
Crown dark ashy-grey; lores, ear-coverts, neck, throat, breast, 
back and upper wing-coverts, black with greyish edges to the 
feathers; wings dusky-brown ; the primaries margined with pale 
rufous, the secondaries with dull grey, forming an inconspicuous 
patch ; under wing-coverts, flanks, belly, ramp, upper and lower 
tail-coverts and tail (except half the inner and a little of the 
outer webs of the two middle tail feathers near the tip, which 
are brown), bright cinnamon-rufous. 
The female is brown above, with the edges of the wings, the 
abdomen, and under tail-coverts, pale rufous; below, dusky on 
the throat and breast, changing to clear light rufous on the abdo- 
men and under tail-coverts ; rump and tail as in the male. 
Mr. Hume, Stray Feathers, Vol. V, p. 36, describes six toler- 
ably distinct stages of plumage, viz :— 
I. Winter plumage—Black of upper surface entirely veiled 
