1 8 REDSTART. 



sides, and tail bright rust-red, while the wings are 

 brown. The song of the Redstart is not particularly 

 attractive ; it sometimes sings on the wing. It feeds 

 almost entirely on insects. Here is an interesting 

 statement of Dean Stanley's with regard to the 

 feeding of their families : " Redstarts feed their young 

 with little green grubs from gooseberry trees twenty- 

 three times per hour, usually with more than one 

 grub at a time ". 



May is the time to hunt for the Redstart's eggs. 

 The nest is made of moss, grass and leaves, very 

 loosely put together, and lined with feathers and hair. 

 It is always placed in some dark nook or corner ; 

 generally in a hole of a tree or wall, or more rarely 

 in a fork formed by the branches of a tree ; but, like 

 the Robin, the places where this little bird builds are 

 very numerous and very curious too. It has been 

 known to place it inside an inverted flower-pot which 

 stood on the garden path, the bird carrying all the 

 materials through the hole in the top, or rather the 

 bottom. A favourite spot for it is beneath the eaves 

 of a house on the rafters inside, or in the moss and ivy- 

 covered walls of old ruins. In a water-can, in a hole 

 in the ground, or fixed between the hinge and the post 

 on which a garden door was hung ; no place seems 

 too quaint for this interesting little bird. 



The eggs are of a light greenish-blue colour, from 

 four to eight in number, very much like the eggs 

 of the Hedge Sparrow, but smaller and more delicate. 

 To be quite certain of them one should see the bird 

 or nest from which they are obtained. A second brood 

 is generally hatched in June, for which a new nest is 

 built. 



These birds will live in captivity. 



