CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 2. PASSERES. 
143 
September. It is six and a lialf incHes long; the npper parts fine light gray ; beneath pale bnffj- 
white. It frequently makes its nest in old walls, or in the recesses of rocks. This consists of dry 
grass, shreds, feathers, and rubbish. The eggs are five or six in number, and of a delicate pale 
blue. The male has a gentle and pleasing song. Immense numbers of this bird are taken by 
the sbepherds on the downs along the southern coast of England toward the close of summer. 
One person lias been known to capture eighty-four dozen in a day! The mode in whicb 
they are taken is singular from its simplicity. A chamber is formed by cutting out an oblong 
piece of turf, wliicb is then laid over the hole formed in the opposite direction, so as to be 
supported by its ends, and two passages are also cut in the turf leading into the chambei'. 
Throusrh these the birds run for shelter at the least alarm; but in the middle of the chamber 
a small, upright stick is placed, supporting two running loops of horse-hair, so arranged that 
it is almost impossible for a bird to pass through the chamber without getting his neck into one 
of the nooses. This species is found in Greenland, and probably in North America, being callec: 
the American Stone-Chat, S. cenanthoideSj by Cassin. 
Genus PHCENICURA : Phoenicura. — This includes the Redstart, P. ruticiUa, a summer 
visitor to Europe, five and a half inches long, lead-gray above, beneath pale chestnut. It is a 
sweet and indefatigable singer, and may be heard as late as ten o'clock at night, and as early as 
three in the morning. The skirts of woods, lanes and meadow hedgerows, orchards, gardens, the 
old ivied wall of a ruin, are all favorite haunts. The male shows himself, as if proud of his pretty 
t plumage, while he is uttering his soft, sweet song, vibrating his tail the while, on some low branch 
of a tree, or weather-beaten stone, nor does his music cease as he flies to another station to con- 
tinue his strain. A crevice in a wall, a hollow tree, a nook in a building, or sometimes a hole in 
the ground, receives the nest, the outside of which is rough and rich with moss, and lined with 
hair and feathers. Four, six, and even eight greenish-blue eggs are deposited, and the first brood, 
for there are generally two in a season, are frequently fledged by the second week in June. The 
