388 THE COMMON REDSTART. 



ADDITIONAL. The Black-breasted Redstart, or Black Redtail, 

 as MACGILLIVRAY calls it, is a very rare bird in this country, not 

 more than five specimens being mentioned by YABEELL as hav- 

 ing been taken here. GOULD was the first British naturalist 

 who recorded the capture of a specimen, which occurred in the 

 neighbourhood of London, in October, 1849. The fifth specimen 

 mentioned was shot near Bristol, while flying about with some 

 Stonechats among furze. MUDIE calls this bird the Black Red- 

 start, and WOOD the Tithys Warbler. TENNANT says that it 

 inhabits the Morea ; and STRICKLAND observes that it is common 

 among the rocky shores near Smyrna, where it remains during 

 winter. The Prince of Musignano, when at sea in the spring of 

 1828, about five hundred miles from Portugal, and four hundred 

 from Africa, obtained a specimen, which was caught in the rig- 

 ging of the ship, the wind at the time blowing strong from the 

 east. 



152. THE COMMON REDSTART. 



Sylvia or Motacilla Phoenicurus, LIN. Rossignol de Muraille, BUF. Das 

 Gemeine oder Garten Rothschwauzchen, BECH. 



Description. The Redstart is five inches and a quarter in 

 length, of which the tail measures two inches and a quarter. 

 The beak is five lines long, round at the point, black, except 

 at the corners and in the inside, where it is yellow. The iris 

 and the feet are black ; the shin bones ten lines high. The 

 insertion of the upper mandible and the cheeks are black; 

 the throat black, spotted with white. The forehead is white, 

 and a stripe of the same colour passes over the eyes. The 

 back of the head and neck, the back and the lesser wing coverts, 

 are dark ashen grey, tinged with red. The rump, breast, sides, 

 and upper part of the belly are rust coloured, the last being 

 clouded with white ; the under part of the belly and the vent 

 rusty yellow ; the larger wing coverts, and their pen feathers, 

 dark brown, edged with yellow ; the tail rusty red, having 

 the two centre feathers dark brown. 



The female is very different, and resembles, except that its 

 plumage is lighter, the female of the Black Redstart. The 

 upper part of the body is a reddish ashen grey ; the throat 

 whitish, clouded, after the fifth or sixth year, with black. The 

 breast is a dirty rust-colour, mottled with white ; the belly 

 dusky white; the rump reddish yellow. The larger wing 

 coverts and the hinder pen feathers are edged with mst- 

 colour. 



