REDSTART. 
71 
be in all equally at home. For instance, with regard to 
the locality chosen for its summer residence, this bird is 
frequently seen to make choice of a wild and retired situation 
among over-hanging cliffs, partly covered with vegetation, and 
interspersed with wood, where it appears so shy, that but 
a momentary glance is obtained of its form, as it hastily 
retires from observation. Having observed this, we can 
hardly believe that it is the same bird that builds under the 
eaves of inhabited dwellings, and even becomes so familiar 
as to breed fearlessly in little boxes or jars placed against 
a cottage wall for that purpose. Their familiarity is not, 
however, by any means equal to that of the redbreast, as 
they never enter dwellings like that buxl, neither do they 
trust themselves much nearer to us than the edge of the 
roof or the top of the wall. But whether the Redstart 
locates itself in towns or villages, or chooses the greater 
retirement of woods and forests, it still keeps itself at a 
similar elevation from the ground, being usually seen upon 
the higher part of the selected house, or wall, or pollard 
tree. This bird is not, we believe, found in open, barren 
country, nor in spots entirely destitute of wood. Among 
trees, pollards appear to be most attractive to them, espe¬ 
cially old pollard willows, as affording, in their decaying 
cavities, the sort of shelter in which these birds delight; 
and also because they conceal, in the crevices of their wrinkled 
bark, innumerable larvm and insects suitable for food. 
The Redstart builds in various localities, but the nest is 
always more or less concealed and sheltered in all; a hole in 
an old mossy or ivy covered wall is sometimes chosen, or a 
cavity in a willow tree : and so necessary does accommoda¬ 
tion of this sort appear to the habits of the Redstart, that 
Selby considers the decrease of this species, in Northumber¬ 
land, attributable to the substitution of hedges for stone walls, 
and to the removal of many aged trees, through the greater 
