The Redstart. 41 



Kent : I was examining a tall roadside hawthorn edge for nests, when suddenly a 

 small bird appeared, out of the field at the back, right in the centre of an open 

 part of the hedge its tail quivering laterally, with a remarkable springy action 

 quite new to me : at first I wondered what this lovely little creature could be ; 

 and then, suddenly, its identity with the Redstart revealed itself, and the next 

 minute it turned and flitted away. The flight is irregular, jerky and not specially 

 rapid, excepting w^hen the bird is either startled or in pursuit of prey ; in the 

 latter case I know of no bird of its size which can equal it in activity, or in its 

 power of doubling ; the same may also be said of the male bird, when in pursuit 

 of another of its own sex. 



The food of the Redstart consists of insects and their larvae, spiders, centipedes 

 and, towards autumn, of unripe corn and small fruits : most of its prey is captured 

 in the air and no insect pursued by it has the least chance of escaping : it will 

 stop in midflight and poise itself, fluttering in one spot whilst it seizes a sun-fly; 

 or, with equal ease, it will follow the wild zigzag wanderings of the small white 

 butterfly : in pursuit of spiders, it will rise up and down, like the Humming-bird 

 moth, before old moss-grown walls, searching every crevice for the lurking victims ; 

 an unwary centipede, projecting its head in a tentative manner from behind a 

 fragment of loosened bark, or running hurriedly from the shelter of one boulder 

 to another, is snatched up in a second and devoured ; if a small green caterpillar 

 crosses a woodland path, the Redstart darts obliquely down as though hurled from 

 a catapult, alights for one second with quivering expanded tail, and seizing its 

 victim gives it a bang or two and swallows it. If, however, the caterpillar is a 

 large one, the bird either remains on the earth uutil it has knocked it to a pulp, 

 or carries it to a branch and there, holding it by the head, strikes it backwards 

 and forwards across its perch : gnats and flies are caught and swallowed on the wing. 



It has been said that the action of the Redstart's tail is vertical, not lateral ; 

 but certainly to my eye it is rather lateral than vertical, and I have watched it 

 in an aviary for an hour at a time : the action bears no resemblance whatever 

 to that of either the Whinchat or Stonechat, but consists of a sudden lateral 

 springiness with a slight expansion of the feathers. I repeatedly called the 

 attention of others to this abnormal tail-movement and everyone who saw it agreed 

 with me that it was a vibrant wag. When the bird is at rest on a branch, every 

 thought of the little creature seems to be emphasized by a jerk, or an expansion 

 of the feathers. 



Nidification commences early in May, the site being just such as a Robin 

 would select ; a hole in a tree or wall, but sometimes a hollow gate post, or a 

 flower pot is chosen : it is usually not far from the ground. The nest itself is 



