148 Silviadce. 



42. BLACK REDSTART (Phcenicura titys). 



This little bird has been somewhat ill- treated by ornithologists 

 in regard to its name. Originally designated tltys by Linnaeus, 

 with the meaning of a ' small chirping bird' relics of which 

 we have in our Tilmouse and Tidark it became by mistake 

 converted into tithys, for which there is neither authority nor 

 reason. And this false title usurped the place of the rightful 

 owner, and reigned in the works of many of our chief authorities, 

 even in that of Yarrell himself, until detected and deposed, in 

 the fourth edition, by the vigilance of Professor Newton, whose 

 accurate eye no flaw of title could escape. It has also been most 

 erroneously termed the ' Blackstart,' a name utterly misleading, 

 as with a generally black or dusky plumage, its tail alone is of 

 a reddish-bay. I am glad to add it to our Wiltshire list, on the 

 authority of Mr. T. Humming, of Red House, Amesbury, who 

 very obligingly wrote to inform me that one had appeared near 

 that place, and that he had himself seen it killed, but 'he could 

 not give me the exact date; and again, I have one more instance 

 for which I am indebted to Mr. Grant : it is of a specimen shot 

 by Mr. H. Sargent, of Enford Farm, on April 16, 1881. It is a 

 bird with which I am very familiar, having met with it frequently 

 at Mentone, Bordighera, Cannes, and other parts of the Riviera, 

 as well as at various times and places in Switzerland. I also saw 

 it daily in Cairo, where one frequented a wall just outside my 

 window, in Shepheard's Hotel ; and again, in the very heart of 

 Lisbon, a pair occupied, and probably were nesting, in some 

 house-roofs below my windows in the Hotel Braganza, and I 

 found it common throughout Portugal. It is not, however, very 

 often noticed in England, though much more frequently of late 

 years ; but abundant as it is in Southern and Western Europe, 

 I cannot help thinking that its scarcity here is perhaps in some 

 degree due to its having been overlooked and mistaken for its 

 more brilliant congener, which in general habits it very much 

 resembles, though it frequents the mountain-sides and rocky 

 districts in preference to valleys and plains. In France it is 



