18 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
actual plumage. They begin to nest very early in 
the season, and have often eggs by the early days 
of April, though the second brood may be found 
as late as July. The nest is extremely well con- 
cealed in thick heather or close-growing furze, 
on or very close to the ground, and often at the 
end of a little run or tunnel. It is loosely built 
of soft dry grass and moss, and has generally some 
rabbit's fur in the lining. Six eggs are usually 
laid. They are of a curious dim bluish or greyish- 
green, not a true blue, like the Whinchat's or Red- 
start's, and more or less thickly dusted with fine, 
faint freckles of rusty red. 
REDSTART. 
{Ruti cilia phoenicurus.') 
Redtail, Firetail. — The Redstart is one of the 
most beautiful and graceful of all our summer 
birds, and is curiously local and fitful in its dis- 
tribution about the country. It arrives about the 
middle of April, and chiefly haunts the sides of 
streams in moist and tree-fringed meadows, as well 
as cowyards, gardens, and other places where there 
is a good water-supply, and consequently much 
insect life. But it will often be common in one 
