360 INSECTIVOR^:. 



"blink" of reddish-orange displayed by the flirt of the tail, 

 even when there is not time to notice the peculiar motion of 

 that organ, is, however, sufficient to distinguish it from every 

 other bird. 



Its song is sweet, though plaintive, and has some resem- 

 blance to that of the nightingale, only very inferior in com- 

 pass and power, and audible only at a short distance. The 

 song is uttered from the perch, on a ruin, a tall post, the 

 trunk of a blasted tree, or some other situation from which 

 it can see around it ; and one who has heard the plaintive 

 strain of the red-start from the top of a ruined abbey or 

 crumbling fortalice, would be inclined to call it the bird of 

 decay, rather than the " wall-nightingale," as Bufibn did. It 

 is not a nightingale at all, even in time, for it usually begins 

 its song about the time when that of the nightingale ceases. 

 Early morn is its favourite time, but not till the dawn has 

 made considerable advances. When the males arrive, they 

 sing from elevated perches ; but after the operations of nest- 

 ing are begun, they sing lower, and always within a short dis- 

 tance of the nest. Among other birds, the song of 'the male 

 is not always easily detected, for he is partially an imitator 

 of other birds. The flirting of the tail is accompanied by a 

 very short and plaintive chirp. From the habit which both 

 birds have of hopping about, the nest is not easily discovered, 

 even though it be known to be near ; and when it is dis- 

 covered, considerable liberties may be taken with it, without 

 making the birds desert it. 



As is the case with most of the other warblers, the red 

 warbler lands on the eastern portion of the south coast of 

 England. The flight of these migrants is rather from the 

 south-east than on the meridian by the Valley of the Seine 

 rather than from Brittany; and they do not land much 

 farther to the west than Dorset, and, indeed, chiefly in Kent, 

 Sussex, and Wilts, and partially on the east coast as far as 



