THE BLUE-THROATED WARBLER 75 



its brilliant ultramarine-blue gorget fringed with 

 a rust-red band. It had been for some minutes 

 feeding and moving about in the bush and on the 

 ground, and yet, during the whole of that time, 

 it had never once turned right head on, and that 

 which was my first experience is, one finds, a quite 

 usual peculiarity. It always seems to give you 

 a back view, and from that view you might be 

 justified in thinking it was a Redstart, as it has 

 the same habit of flitting its tail up and down, 

 and showing the very orange - red under - parts. 

 Whether it was an accidental visitation I do not 

 know, but early in the year 1908 the gardens of 

 the old Luxor Hotel were full of Bluethroats — as 

 soon, pretty well, as you passed one you came on 

 another. The little water-channels running about 

 these well-kept grounds seemed to be the point of 

 attraction, as they were busily hopping about and 

 sometimes into them, and splashing merrily — hardly 

 serious washing, but a sort of childlike abandon of 

 pleasure in pleasant surroundings ; but even with 

 so many visible, and seen under such familiar 

 conditions, it was astonishing how seldom any gave 

 one a front face view. There is a point of great 

 interest in the two races of Bluethroat, one 

 having a red, the other a white spot on the blue 



