BEDSTART. 43 



killed while the hen was sitting, another partner joined the 

 widow and became foster-father to the orphaned family. 



The eggs, which are of a uniform light greenish blue colour, 

 are generally from four to six or seven in number, but occa- 

 sionally so many as eight have been found. They much 

 resemble those of the Dunnock, but are of a paler colour 

 and a more slender and delicate form, as well as considerably 

 smaller. 



Male; weight, about three drachms and three quarters; 

 length, five inches and a half to five and three quarters; bill, 

 black, as is the space about it; its corners are yellow; iris, 

 dark brown; over the eye is a line of white. Upper part of 

 the forehead, white; head on the sides, black; crown, neck 

 on the back, and nape, deep bluish grey, tinged with light 

 brown ; chin and throat, black ; breast, rusty yellowish red on 

 the upper part, below nearly white; back above, bluish grey, 

 on the lower part rusty red. The wings have the first 

 primary feather about a third of the length of the second, 

 which is rather shorter than the sixth, the fourth the longest, 

 the third and fifth scarcely shorter; greater wing coverts, 

 brown, edged with paler; primaries and secondaries, greyish 

 black; underneath, they are grey; greater and lesser under 

 wing coverts, beautiful rust red. The tail, rather long, is 

 rusty red, except the two middle feathers, which are brown 

 on the inner webs; in some specimens they are wholly brown. 

 The name Redstart, I may here observe, is derived from the 

 words red and steort, the Saxon for a tail. Under tail 

 coverts, reddish orange; legs, toes, and claws, blackish brown, 

 with a tinge of red. 



Female; length, about five inches and a quarter; head and 

 crown, with a shade of grey brown; chin, dull white; throat, 

 reddish white; breast, inclining to pale rufous, on the lower 

 part reddish white; back, yellowish brown, with a shade of 

 grey, on the lower part rusty red, but much duller than in 

 the male. Greater and lesser wing coverts, primaries, and 

 secondaries, greyish brown, margined with reddish; tail, rusty 

 red, but much duller than in the male, as are the upper tail 

 coverts; under tail coverts, paler. Very old females are said 

 to approximate to the colour of the male. 



In the young male of the year the white forehead is 

 wanting; neck in front, variegated with white; the throat 

 has the black intermixed with white feathers, as is the case 

 with the orange on the breast; breast, mottled with yellowish 



