142 THE RED-START. 



situations for food and water, and all their wants are 

 most admirably attended to ; but the constant journey- 

 ings of those parent birds that have nestlings unable to 

 move away, the speed with which they accomplish their 

 trips, the anxiety they manifest, and the long labor in 

 which they so gaily persevere, is most remarkable and 

 pleasing, and a duty consigned but to a few. 



We have no bird more assiduous in attentions to their 

 young, than the red-start, (steort, Saxon, a tail,) one or 

 other of the parents being in perpetual action, convey- 

 ing food to the nest, or retiring in search of it ; but as 

 they are active, quick-sighted creatures, they seem to 

 have constant success in their transits. They are the 

 most restless and suspicious of birds during this season 

 of hatching and rearing their young; for when the 

 female is sitting, her mate attentively watches over her 

 safety, giving immediate notice of the approach of any 

 seemingly hostile thing, by a constant repetition of one 

 or two querulous notes, monitory to her or menacing to 

 the intruder : but when the young are hatched, the very 

 appearance of any suspicious creature sets the parents 

 into an agony of agitation, and perching upon some 

 dead branch or a post, they persevere in one unceasing 

 clamor till the object of their fears is removed ; a mag- 

 pie near their haunts, with some reason, excites their 

 terror greatly, which is expressed with unremitting 

 vociferation. All this parental anxiety, however, is no 

 longer in operation than during the helpless state of 

 their offspring, which, being enabled to provide their 

 own requirements, gradually cease to be the objects of 

 solicitude and care ; they retire to some distant hedge, 

 become shy and timid things, feeding in unobtrusive 

 silence. 



The brown starling, or solitary thrush (turdus soli- 

 tarius), is not an uncommon bird with us. It breeds in 

 the holes and hollows of old trees, and, hatching early, 

 forms small flocks in our pastures, which are seen about 

 before the arrival of the winter starling, for which bird, 

 by its manners and habits, it is generally mistaken. It 

 will occasionally, in very dry seasons, enter our gardens 

 for food, which the common stares never do ; and this 



