Redstart. 147 



tail Warbler.' In France it is Bee-Jin de Murailles, ' Wall Warbler/ 

 in allusion to its hailnts and nesting-place; in Germany, Schwartz- 

 keliger Sanger,' Black-throated Warbler. The scientific name, 

 Ph(jenicura, signifies ' red-tail,' from <poli>i^ ' purple red,' and oipd 

 'tail;' ruticilla is a repetition of the same in another form, 

 meaning 'Red-tail/ from mtilus, 'red,' and cilia, 'tail,' the 

 termination we have seen in Albicilla, 'White-tailed Eagle,' and 

 shall see in Motacilla, the generic name of the Wagtails ; 

 Bomby cilia, ' Silk- tail,' etc. 



Towards the end of April this handsome and interesting bird 

 arrives in England, and may be seen darting after insects on the 

 wing, and capturing them with unerring precision ; or running 

 after its prey on the grass with equal certainty of success. In 

 plumage it is the brightest and gayest of all the warblers ; the 

 female, in more sombre hue than her mate, is clad in a dress ot 

 pale reddish-brown ; but the male, with his jet-black head and 

 throat, bright chestnut breast and tail, white forehead, and gray 

 back, presents a handsome appearance from the contrast and 

 combination of colours : but the distinctive peculiarity of these 

 birds consists in their spreading out the feathers of the orange-red 

 tail, and jerking it from side to side, an action belonging to the 

 Redstarts alone, and by which they may be distinguished from all 

 other birds. Harting remarks that in this horizontal shaking of 

 the tail, they move them as dogs do when they fawn, whereas 

 the tail of a wagtail, when in motion, bobs up and down like 

 that of the jaded horse.* They delight in 'buildings, especially 

 old walls, in the crevices of which they make their nests ; they 

 are good songsters, and continue their %ong from morning till 

 night. From my own observation I should say it is now much 

 more scarce than it was a few years back ; certainly its numbers 

 in the localities where I have annually watched it are very much 

 decreased. , 



* White's ' Selborne,' Harting's edition, p. 121; 'Our Summer Migrants,' 



pp. 7578. 



102 



