110 A LONG; DAY WiTtH THE BIRDS 
ology to a beginner and a would-be learner. 
Unless the subject be carefully studied and 
acquaintance be made with the flight, general 
appearance and behaviour of the different birds, 
especially the small ones, a brown bird is a 
sparrow, a red one a robin, and so on.) ‘the 
redstart has a white forehead. the head 
and upper part of the back is a blue-grey, 
the wings are brown and the throat is black. 
the red, a beautiful rusty tint, from which it 
gets part of its name, is found on the breast, 
under part of the body and tail, which is 
varied by two black feathers. The red tail 
has given it the name of Fire-tail. (This is 
the summer plumage, that of the winter is 
modified.) It 1s a migratory bird, arriving 
in April and returning to the Continent in 
September. It lives on insects chiefly, catch- 
thing them in the air lke the fly-catcher. 
It has a pretty song. It is not a common 
bird. High up in a may bush was an open, 
cup-shaped nest somewhat larger than a hedge- 
sparrow’s and built of much the same materials, 
from which a brownish-looking bird larger 
