266 SYLVIADA. 
it frequents towns or villages, it chooses holes in walls, 
roofs of houses, and sometimes, according to M. Vieillot, 
the elevated parts of churches. The nest is formed exter- 
nally of grass, and lined with hair: the eggs are five or six 
in number, ten lines in length by seven lines in breadth, 
white, smooth, and shining. The female frequently has 
two broods in the season. The song of the male, according 
to Bechstein, “‘ contains a few high, clear notes, which may 
be heard from an early hour in the morning till night. 
The bird is always gay and active, shaking its tail at every 
hop, and continually uttering its peculiar call-note.” 
In the adult male, the beak is black, the irides blackish 
brown; the top of the head, neck, and back, dark bluish 
grey: wing-coverts and quill-feathers greyish black ; the 
coverts edged with lighter grey ; the secondaries and tertials 
on the outer edges almost white: rump and tail-coverts 
chestnut ; tail-feathers bright chestnut, except the two 
middle feathers, which are very dark brown, almost black. 
The cheeks, chin, throat, breast, and sides, dark scoty 
grey, becoming slate-grey on the belly, and still lighter on 
the vent and under tail-coverts, which are tinged with red ; 
under wing-coverts dull greyish white; under surface of 
the primaries lead-grey ; under surface of tail-feathers 
chestnut ; legs, toes, and claws, black. 
The whole length of the bird is five inches and three- 
quarters. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest 
quill-feather three inches and three-eighths: the first quill- 
feather very short ; the second and the seventh nearly 
equal in length ; the third rather longer than the sixth ; the 
fourth and fifth equal, and the longest in the wing. 
The female of this species is not very unlike the female 
of the Common Redstart, but is generally somewhat darker. 
The upper parts are of a dull brownish grey, the tertials 
