54 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 
arrow memory. It seems to be, or to have been, a common feel- 
ing among boys, and is embodied in the old lines :-— 
“The Robin and the Wren 
Are God’s Cock and Hen.” 
How beautiful the Robin’s eggs are when just laid ; and how they 
lose their peculiar pinky loveliness from being blown. A hundred 
different places, too, the little bird selects for the site of its nest; 
often being such, moreover, as to illustrate their confiding fear- 
lessness, as much as the result in them of the pressure of winter 
cold and hunger. In the tilt of a wagon; in a steam-boat; ina 
room of the cottage ; near a blacksmith’s forge ; in the constantly- 
used garden-shed, as well as in the ivy or evergreen bush; or on 
the bank, or in the hedge; or ina hole in the old ruin or bank 
or house-wall: all places seem to suit it alike. The eggs are, 
five or six, sometimes seven; and the shell is white, more or 
less freckled with light red. 14, plate II. 
49. BLUE-THROATED WARBLER—(Phenicura Suecica). 
Blue-throated Robin, Blue-throated Redstart, Blue-breast.— 
Only of very rare occurrence. 
50. REDSTART—(Phemcura ruticilla). 
Firetail, Fireflirt, Brantail, Redtail—The male is one of the 
most beautiful of our small birds, and Lwish I could think it as 
abundant with us as it used to be. The nest is loosely con- 
structed of moss, with a few small straws or bents sometimes, 
and hair and feathers inside, and almost invariably is placed in 
a hole, it may be ina hollowish tree, or a wall, or even in a bank; 
and here, where dry-stone walls abound, its choice of nesting- 
places is inexhaustible. Very watchful are the old birds over the 
eggs, and very fussy and noisy when the eggs have yielded their 
living contents, and yet very careful too. I knew there was a 
nest the year before last not far from my garden gate; but it was 
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