430 BRITISH BIRDS OF THE ROBIN KIND. 



unlike that of the missel-thrush ( Turdus viscivonis), only not nearly so 

 loud. Like that bird, also, it frequently sings as it flies from tree to 

 tree. The black redstart's song I have never heard, but have very 

 little doubt of its possessing one, though I have never yet met with a 

 description of it. The species, though common enough in many parts 

 of Europe, has but lately been discovered in Britain, and can only be 

 considered here as a rare and accidental straggler. It is a bird inter- 

 mediate between the common redstart and the robin ; like the former, 

 it is an expert flycatcher, and the sexes are very dissimilar in plumage ; 

 and as in the latter, its manners are remarkably familiar and domestic. 

 This bird, together with an Indian species, the Rubecula alrata, 

 has been beautifully figured in a volume of the ornithological illus- 

 trations, conducted by Mr. Selby, Sir W. Jardine, and other eminent 

 naturalists. 



Genus Saxicola. It is not without due and careful consideration 

 that I have ventured to divide the chats (Rubetra) from the wheatears 

 (Saxicola). There appears, however, to be as much difference between 

 them as exists between the generic divisions Lanins and Collurio, 

 between Astur and Sparvius (Accipiter of some authors), Tyr annus and 

 Tyrannula, and many others which might be named, and which, as 

 separate genera, have been adopted by various writers of distinction. 

 They moreover differ as much from each other as the two genera which 

 have been just described, Rubecula and Philomela. The form of the 

 bill, in Rubetra, is more that of the fly-catcher than in Saxicola • and 

 their respective habits are in accordance. The birds of the former genus 

 are smaller than those of the latter, and they require, at least in con- 

 finement, a more nutritious kind of food. The two British species of 

 Rubetra, like the nightingale, I have never found to thrive well in the 

 cage without much animal food, but the wheatear will subsist, and 

 thrive, upon bread crumbs and bruised hemp-seed. This latter food, 

 or rather a slight variation of it, crumbled buns being used instead of 

 bread, mixed with a little of the German paste sold in the shops, I have 

 found to be an excellent general food for most soft-billed birds ; the 

 redbreast, the wheatear, and many of the warblers (the Ficedulaz in 

 particular) will do well on this food only ; but the whinchat and stone- 

 chat require something more nourishing, and if they have not, every 

 day, a little meat given to them in addition, they will very soon die. 

 The general haunts, also, of the chats are somewhat different from those 

 of the wheatears. The former frequent chiefly commons overrun with 

 furze, and a few (particularly whinchats) may often be observed in the 



