124 BLUE-THROATED REDSTART. 



some years ; yet, if Temminck be correct, the 

 difference in their range is against this, and the 

 probability is, that two species are still con- 

 founded, and that a strict comparison will detect 

 more differences than the colour of the pectoral 

 spot. The British specimens all possess the white 

 spot, and would stand as P. cyanecula, Meyer. 

 From the accounts which Mr Yarrell quotes from 

 Mr Hoy's observations, the manners of the Blue- 

 throated Redstart are more akin to the Robins than 

 to the Stonechats, being more arboreal in habits, 

 and frequenting, during the breeding season, 

 " low swampy grounds, on the woody borders of 

 boggy heaths, and on the banks of streams run- 

 ning through wet springy meadows, where there 

 is abundance of alder and willow underwood." 

 Again, " the nest is placed on the ground among 

 plants of the bog myrtle, in places overgrown 

 with coarse grass, on the sides of sloping banks, 

 in the bottom of stubs of scrubby brushwood in 

 wet situations ;" and he adds, " I do not believe 

 they ever build in holes of trees."* Its manner of 

 living, also, is very different from either the 

 Stonechats or Redstarts, and altogether it forms 

 a gradual blending or passage to the typical 

 songster warblers, comprising its sub-family. 

 Perhaps the beautiful Motacilla caliope, bandied 

 about from Motacilla, Sylvia, Accentor, Phceni- 

 cura, and at last into Caliope, Gould, when its 

 habits are better known, will shew a still farther 

 gradation, and it does not seem at all unlikely, 

 * Yarrel, British Birds, i. p. 235. 



