26 Order I 



it is always flirting, is not easily overlooked, even in 

 the wooded country which it chiefly haunts. Its sweet 

 low warble is perhaps most commonly heard in the 

 valleys of our northern hills; the nest of moss, grass, 

 and roots, lined with hair and feathers, is generally built 

 in a hole in a rotten tree or wall, and contains some six 

 pale blue eggs. The bird has a wide foreign range from 

 northern Norway to Lake Baikal, and southward 

 throughout Europe to the Atlas mountains in north 

 Africa, but complications arise from the existence of 

 several closely allied forms. The hen has a plain head 

 and brownish back. 



The Black Redstart (P. titys), as its name implies, is 

 black with a red tail, the upper surface being somewhat 

 greyer with a white wing-patch and the two central tail 

 feathers brown, as they are in the Common Redstart. 

 To travellers in Germany it is a well-known bird, for it 

 builds its nest round houses and sheds, while it is specially 

 interesting to us as having been suspected of breeding 

 in England and being a frequent autumn visitor. The 

 female resembles that of the last species but is greyer ; 

 the male has a richer song ; the eggs are white. The 

 range extends from the Baltic and the Urals to 

 Rumania, Palestine, and north Africa. 



The Red-spotted Bluethroat (Cyanosylvia suecica) is 

 an irregular autumn and rare spring migrant, which 

 deserves special notice as linking the Redstarts to the 

 Robin and the Nightingale, and so to the Warblers. It 

 has the general habits and nest of the Robin, while the 

 song is little inferior to that of the Nightingale, and the 

 eggs are similar. The male is brown, with white eye- 

 stripe, rufous rump, and blue throat ; the throat has 

 a red central spot and is bounded by black, followed by 



