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REDSTART. — RM(tciUa -phoinicivra. 



The food of the Eedstart is mostly of an insect nature, and is obtained in various 

 ways. Sometimes the bird dashes from its perch upon a passing insect, after the manner 

 of the flycatcher ; sometimes it chases beetles, and other creeping insects upon the 

 leaves and branches of the hedges ; sometimes it hunts for worms, grubs, and snails 

 from the ground ; and it often picks maggots out of fungi, decaying wood, mosses, and 

 lichens. Soft ripe fruit is also eaten by the Eedstart, which, however, ought to be allowed its 

 free range of the garden in recompense for the great service which it has performed in the 

 earlier portion of the year, by devouring the myriad insects that feed upon the blossoms 

 of fruit-trees. The softer berries form part of the Eedstart's diet, but the bird does not 

 seem to care about the hard seeds. 



The colouring of the Eedstart is as follows : The top of the head, the neck, and the 

 back are bluish grey, contrasting finely with the jetty black of the chin, the throat, the 

 face, and the sides of the neck. The wings are rich brown, slightly streaked with a 

 lighter shade of the same hue, and the upper tail-coverts and all the tail-feathers are 

 bright ruddy chestnut, with the exception of the two central tail-feathers, which are striped 

 with the same hue as the wing-feathers. The breast and all the lower surface is very pale 

 chestnut, and the forehead is white. The length of the bird is more than five inches. 



Anothee species of the same genus is occasionally, though very rarely, seen in England. 

 This is the Black Eedstart {RuticiUa Tithys), and is readily distinguished from the 

 common species by the sooty black hue of its breast and abdomen. This bird resembles 

 the common Eedstart in many of its habits, but is seldom seen on open ground. At a 

 meeting of the British Association a curious anecdote was related of this bird, which well 

 exemplified the force of parental affection. 



A railway carriage had been left for some weeks out of use in the station at Giessen, 

 Hesse Darmstadt, in the month of May, 1852, and when the superintendent came to 

 examine the carriage, he found that a Black Eedstart had built her nest upon the collision 

 spring ; he very humanely retained the carriage in its shed until its use was imperatively 

 demanded, and at last attached it to the train, which ran to Frankfort-on Ihe-Maine, a 



