REDSTART 
19 
such favourable locality, and hardly to be seen 
in another a few miles off which is apparently in 
every way as suitable. It has probably been 
nowhere commoner, for instance, of late years 
than in the Tsis and Cherwell meadows round 
Oxford ; but it is quite likely to cease visiting 
the locality in any profusion just as unaccountably 
as it came, perhaps to colonise the water-meadows 
and willows of other streams in the Upper 
Thames valley, where it is now a very unfamiliar 
visitor. It nests in such holes as it finds about its 
haunts, either in walls or trees ; like the Pied 
Wagtail, it has no objection to the hole having a 
good wide mouth, and will cleverly insert its nest 
in some side crevice or pocket. The nest is rather 
flat and loose in build, but very softly made of 
such materials as moss and rootlets, and lined with 
cowhair and feathers, or a mixture of other such 
comfortable bird-bedding. The eggs, five or six as 
a rule, are a rather pale blue, darker than the 
Wheatear's, but lighter than an ordinary Hedge- 
sparrow's ; in size they are also a little smaller than 
a normal Hedge-sparrow's, and have sometimes a 
few rusty freckles. The situation of the nest 
makes it impossible to mistake the blue eggs for 
those of any other bird, except the Pied Flycatcher, 
and the two birds seldom haunt the same districts. 
The cock has a quiet but sweet little song, of the 
c 2 
