COMMON REDSTART. 
119 
appear to us very marked both in form and in 
habits. Phcenicura naturally leads from the 
Robins, and as, in the last sub-family, we saw an 
arboreal form, allied to the Nightingale warblers, 
so among these have we the Redstart, blending 
into the habits of the Saxicolas. They feed on 
fruits as well as upon insects. 
Phcenicura, Swainson. — Generic character. 
— Bill straight, rather slender, depressed, 
and rather dilated at the base ; rictus with 
weak bristles ; wings with the first quill 
very short, the third and fourth nearly equal 
and longest; tarsi rather lengthened, and 
with the feet slender. 
Types, ph. rutieilla, atrata. 
Note. — Europe, India. Tail generally coloured 
red or rufous. 
Common Redstart — Phcenicura ruticilla, 
Swainson. — Ruticilla, Will. Ray. — Sylvia 
phcenicura, Lath. — Motacilla phcenicura, Linn. 
— Redstart, Redtail of British authors. — This 
clean and chastely coloured bird is of local 
distribution, and except in some of the southern 
counties of England, it can scarcely be called of 
common occurrence. It extends, nevertheless, 
to the northern parts of Scotland, and over the 
width of the mainland occasional pairs may gene- 
rally be met with ; in one or two districts it is 
plentiful, but in others, as remarked by Mr Selby, 
