206 OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



pair of redstarts built in the garden of the gentle- 

 man who relates the faet, and became very inte- 

 resting to him by tlie affection whieli the male 

 bird showed to his mate while sitting. Tliis bird 

 would sit on a tree near the nest, watcliing it 

 witli the gi'catcst anxiety. Some days after it had 

 been thus observed, the narrator, to liis grief, saw 

 a boy throw a stone at the l)ird, and kill it. " On 

 my going to tlie place the next day," he says, 

 " I was excessively surjirised to see a male red- 

 start sitting on the very same tree from which, 

 the day before, tlie other had been knocked down. 

 On my going near the nest, it flew away, with evi- 

 dent tokens of alarm ; and on my putting my liand 

 to the nest, the hen bird flew off. All I need say 

 in addition is, that the eggs were hatched; and the 

 foster-father, for such he certainly was, assisted, 

 as the cock birds usually do, tlie hen in bringing 

 up the young brood." 



The food of the redstart consists of slugs, worms, 

 various insects and their larvae and of several kinds 

 of berries. It has been accused of watching the 

 beehives, and seizing on the industrious little crea- 

 tures when they emerged to roam the garden ; but 

 this charge seems to be quite without foundation. 



