REDSTART. 43 
killed while the hen was sitting, another partner joined the 
widow and became foster-father to the orphaned family. 
The eggs, which are of a uniform lght greenish blue colour, 
are generally from four to six or seven in number, but occa- 
sionally so many as eight have been found. They much 
resemble those of the Dunnock, but are of a paler colour 
and a more slender and delicate form, as well as considerably 
smaller. 
Male; weight, about three drachms and three quarters; 
length, five inches and a half to five and three quarters; bill, 
black, as is the space about it; its corners are yellow; iris, 
dark brown; over the eye is a line of white. Upper part of 
the forehead, white; head on the sides, black; crown, neck 
on the back, and nape, deep bluish grey, tinged with light 
brown; chin and throat, black; breast, rusty yellowish red on 
the upper part. below nearly white: back above, bluish grey, 
on the lower part rusty red. The wings have the first 
primary feather about a third of the length of the second, 
which is rather shorter than the sixth, the fourth the longest, 
the third and fifth scarcely shorter; greater wing coverts, 
brown, edged with paler; primaries and secondaries, greyish 
black; underneath, they are grey; greater and lesser under 
wing coverts, beautiful rust red. The tail, rather long, is 
rusty red, except the two middle feathers, which are brown 
on the inner webs; in some specimens they are wholly brown. 
The name Redstart, I may here observe, is derived from the 
words red and steort, the Saxon for a tail. Under tail 
coverts, reddish orange; legs, toes, and claws, blackish brown, 
with a tinge of red. 
Female; length, about five inches and a quarter; head and 
crown, with a shade of grey brown; chin, dull white; throat, 
reddish white; breast, inclining to pale rufous, on the lower 
part reddish white; back, yellowish brown, with a shade of 
grey, on the lower part rusty red, but much duller than in 
the male. Greater and lesser wing coverts, primaries, and 
secondaries, greyish brown, margined with reddish; tail, rusty 
red, but much duller than in the male, as are the upper tail 
coverts; under tail coverts, paler. Very old females are said 
to approximate to the colour of the male. 
In the young male of the year the white forehead 1s 
wanting; neck in front, variegated with white; the throat 
has the black intermixed with white feathers, as is the case 
with the orange on the breast; breast, mottled with yellowish 
