REDSTART. 
RED TAIL. FIRE-TAIL. 
BRAN-TAIL. FIERY BRAN-TAIL.- 
Sylvia Phenicurus, LATHAM, PENNANT, 
Phenicura ruticilla, SELBY. SWAINSON. 
Ruticilla Phenicurus, MACGILLIVRAY. 
Motucilla Phenicurus, Montagu. 
Sylvia, Sylva—A wood. Phenicurus. Phenix—Purple—red. 
Oura—A tail. 
THis is an exceedingly pretty bird, and one which it is 
always interesting to watch. As it flirts out a little way 
from its accustomed cover, and as suddenly returns to it, you 
cannot help looking for its re-appearance with interest, even 
though in the constant habit of thus making its transient 
acquaintance. 
It is a lively and graceful species, and, though not common, 
yet is not uncommon, in the districts throughout which it 
occurs. It frequents the most retired and the most sequestered 
scenes, and is to be seen in close propinquity to the inhabited 
house in the country, as well as in the wild and retired 
dingle, among the ivy-clad rocks of the overhanging inland 
cliff, and by the margin of the wood and the thicket, on the 
hawthorn hedge, and in the orchard, the trim garden and 
the tangled bank of the winding lane. 
So also, 1t is not shy, nor yet familiar, for though, on the 
one hand, it never enters into a house, so, on the other, it 
is not found among the open and barren parts of the country, 
nor in places that are entirely destitute of wood, and fearlessly 
builds its nest in the crevices of the wall of an inhabited 
house. 
The Redstart is distributed over the greater part of Hurope, 
from Holland, France, Spain, and Italy, to Germany, Russia, 
