48 BLACKSTART. 
finding a milder temperature in the warm and sheltered gorges 
—the humble protected by the lofty and the great, the lowiy 
valley by the regal mountain so elevated above it, towering, 
as it does, towards the sky with its glittermg crown of 
perpetual snow. 
' The flight of the Blackstart is light and quick, and it rises 
and falls in its sportive evolutions with much elegance and 
ease. In walking, they are very erect, and they oscillate the 
tail in the same manner as the other species, and have also 
a dipping motion of the body, especially if alarmed. 
Their food consists of berries and small fruits, worms, larve, 
and insects; the latter they too pursue on the wing, in the 
same way that the Flycatchers do. 
The ordinary note is likened by Meyer to the words ‘fid- 
fid,’ ‘tack-tack.’ Its song, which is clear, but not extensive, 
is begun with the earliest dawn, and is hardly put an end 
to by the return of darkness or the close of day; it is, 
however, somewhat intermitted while a young family has to 
be provided for—a cause sufficient to silence other jocund 
voices beside those of the birds—but otherwise is continued 
throughout the year: the common note just deseribed is then 
constantly repeated. 
Two broods are frequently reared in the year, the first 
being hatched by the beginning of May, and the second soon 
following it, being abroad in June. The same situation is 
frequently returned to year after year. The nest, which is — 
rather large, is placed among the clefts of stones or rocks, 
and also in the holes of walls and ruins, the spires, towers, 
and higher parts of churches, and the roofs of houses. I¢ is 
formed of grasses, moss, wool, and the dry stalks and fibres 
of plants, and is lined more or less with hair or feathers. 
The young are hatched after thirteen days’ incubation. 
The eggs are from five to seven in number, and of a very 
pure glossy white in colour, and the shell peculiarly fagile 
and transparent. J have been favoured by R. W. Hawkins, 
Esq., of Rugeley, Staffordshire, with the nest and ege of this 
bird, taken at Longdon. 
This species is also of a slender form. Male; length, six 
inches and a quarter; bill, black, compressed towards the tip; 
iris, blackish brown; over it is a narrow black mark. Fore- 
head, banded with black, the feathers margined with light 
grey; head on the sides, black, the feathers margined with 
light grey. Grown, ueck on the back and sides, and nape, 
~ 
