124 THE RED-START 



top of the head and its back are dark grey, the breast of a 

 fine russet red, and this bright hue is repeated on the whole 

 extent of its tail feathers, excepting the two middle ones 

 which are brown. But all these tints are much less marked 

 and much toned down in the female red-start. 



These birds are especially to be found in mountainous 

 regions ; they prefer to settle down in abandoned huts or 

 on the roofs of empty dwellings.- Ruins attract them; they 

 harmonize with the wild, untamed disposition of the red- 

 start. There they find ivy-covcrcd walls, tufts of wall- 

 flowers, entangled brambles and briers, under all of which 

 they can build their nest in peace. Very often, in the 

 neighbourhood of lake Annecy, in Savoy, whilst I was 

 climbing the steep, rocky ascent which leads to the 

 rourncftcs, 1 frightened some couples of red-starts, who 

 thought they were quite hidden in safety in these solitary 

 pine forests, where no other noise is to be heard but the 

 foaming of mountain torrents, and in the fai- distance, the 

 feeble, silvery tinkling of the clairin or cow-bells, which 

 iccall the herds of cattle scattered in the pasture. 



The female red-start lays five or six bluish eggs. These 

 birds are naturally of a very mistrustful disposition. It is 

 said that they abandon tlieir nest as soon as they perceive 

 that they are watched in the process of nest-building. 

 « If any one touches one of their eggs, » says the naturalist 

 Albin, « the red-start leaves its brood ; if any one touches 

 their young, it will let them starve or it will break their 



