420 THE THRUSH FAMILY 



spot, the sense of solitude ceases at sight of this little incarnation 

 of all that is bright and cheerful. He comes, perhaps not like our 

 first mother, with heaven in his eye, but yet at least with warm 

 comfort glowing on his ruddy breast, with gloom dispelling light 

 shining from the white star he bears upon his forehead, and with 

 contagious good spirits radiating from his fiery-coloured, never-resting 

 tail. Fire-tail he has been called, for his tail has in truth something 

 of the likeness of a flame flickering among the leaves, whenever its 

 chestnut hue catches the sun-gleams, or when, fanned to the full 

 (as I have seen it), the light shines through it from above. His 

 tail, indeed, has given him all the names he bears. The last syllable 

 in " redstart " is itself nothing but good Anglo-Saxon for tail. Red- 

 tail he is sometimes called, and also flirt-tail. To me, however, it 

 has never seemed that " flirt " or " flick " rendered the reality. The 

 tail, if closely watched, and the same applies to the blackstart, 

 has all the appearance of being moved by the touch of an unseen 

 finger-tip which sets it vibrating as if it were a spring. It vibrates, 

 almost ceases, and then, lightly pressed, again vibrates, sometimes 

 more, and sometimes less, according to the mood that sways its owner. 

 The redstart, like its fellow-species, reminds one frequently of 

 the robin not only in its manner, its nervous movements, curtsies, 

 its way of hopping on the ground when searching for its food, but 

 also to an appreciable degree in its outward shape. If it were 

 possible for a redstart to assume the coloration of a robin, it would 

 not be easy for any but a practised eye to detect the disguise at 

 first sight. The vibrating tail would of course soon betray it. And 

 so also would its pretty habit of flitting from its perch after flies, 

 setting the air alight with red flashes as it lightly turns this way 

 and that to seize its prey. This it does, not occasionally like the 

 robin, but frequently and regularly a habit which it shares with 

 the black-redstart. Both indeed are nearly, if not quite as expert 

 as those past masters in this particular branch of the art, the 

 Flycatchers (Muscicapidce). Mr. Dresser states that on the Continent 



