98

SONG OF THE REDSTART.

The experience of this naturalist does not bear out the statement of Willoughby, who says, 'This is the shyest of all birds, for if she perceives you to mind her when she is building, she will forsake what she has begun, and if you touch an egg, she never comes to her nest more; and if you touch her young ones, she will either starve them or throw them out of the nest and break their necks;' and both Mudie and Stanley agree with him in asserting that this bird is not so easily induced to forsake her nest as is here represented.

Wood agrees with Bechstein and Sweet in stating this to be a very difficult bird to keep long in a state of captivity: 'With great care,' he says, it may be preserved three or four years, but it seldom repays this trouble, always remaining sullen, and singing but little.' This, however, is not always the case, as instances are cited in which the birds became remarkably tame and familiar, and quite happy and content with their lot; singing, in one case, both in the day and night time, and nearly the whole year throughout. White says, 'The song of the Redstart is superior, though somewhat like that of the Whitethroat; some birds have a few more notes than others. Sitting very placidly on the top of a tall tree in a village, the cock sings from morning to night: he affects neighbourhoods and avoids solitude, and loves to build in orchards and about houses;' so that, we see, he also is one of the familiar friends of man.

The lively Redstart strains his little throat

Perch'd on an orchard tree throughout the day;
When downy seeds upon the breezes float,
And wither'd leaves begin to strew the way;
And although bright the sunny beams that play
Upon the landscape, yet all things denote
The glory of the year hath passed away:
And there he warbles out his farewell note.
Soon will his desultory song be heard

In climes more bright and balmier than ours;
The cold, ungenial north suits not this bird,
And so he journeys to a land where bowers
Are ever green; to visit us again

When the sweet smile of April lights the plain.

THE BLACK-BREASTED REDSTART (Ruticilla tithys), sometimes called the Black Redstart, or Redtail, or the Tithys Warbler. The form and size of this bird is very like the other species of Redstarts; the upper parts of its plumage are greyish blue; the rump and tail-coverts red; the throat and breast black, with margin of grey to the feathers. But few individuals have been met with in this country. Continental authors describe it as rare in the northern parts of Europe, but common in the southern. It haunts stony places and bare pastures, feeding on insects, larvæ, worms, and berries; nestles in fissures in the rocks, holes in the walls, or among stones; builds its nest of dry grass, and lines it with hair, and lays five or six eggs, which are white and glossy.

At a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Barry read the following paper :

At the railway station in Giessen, Hesse Darmstadt, in May, 1852, it was found that a bird had built its nest on the collision spring of a third-class carriage, which had remained for some time out of use. The bird was the Black Redstart, and the nest contained five eggs. The discovery was made by the superintendent of luggage vans, Jacob Stephani, who humanely desired his men to

100

THE BLUE-THROATED REDSTART.

avoid as long as possible the running of that carriage. At length, when it could no longer be dispensed with, the carriage was attached to a train, and sent to Frankfort-on-the-Maine, distant between thirty and forty English miles. At Frankfort it remained six-andthirty hours, and was then brought back to Giessen; from whence it went to Lollar, distant four or five English miles, and subsequently again came back to Giessen, having been kept a while at Lollar; so that four days and three nights elapsed between the bringing of the carriage into use, and its last return to Giessen. Stephani now finding the nest not to have been abandoned by the parent birds, and to contain young ones, which he described as feathered, he removed it from the carriage to a secure place of rest which he had prepared, saw the parent bird visit it, and visited it from time to time himself, until at first three, and then the other two young birds had flown; none remaining at the end of four or five days. Now, while the carriage was travelling, where were the parent birds? It will hardly be said that they remained at Giessen awaiting its return, having to examine by night as well as by day hundreds of passing carriages in order to recognise it; the young birds in their nest quietly awaiting food (!). There seems little doubt that, adhering to the nest, one, at least, of the parent birds travelled with the train. Nor, when it is remembered how gently and how slowly an enormous railway carriage is pushed into connection with a train how gradually a train is brought into full speed, and how equable the movements are upon a railway-will it appear incredible that at such a time a parent bird should continue with its nest, that nest being quite concealed, and containing young. Not until after the above was written did the author of this communication become acquainted with the important fact, that while the carriage in question was at Frankfort, as well as during its short stay at Friedeberg, on the way to Frankfort, the conductor of the train saw a red-tailed bird constantly flying from and to the part where the nest was situated in that particular carriage. Is further evidence required that a parent bird did indeed travel with the train?

THE BLUE-THROATED REDSTART (Ruticilla cyanecula).— This bird is frequently called the Blue-throated Warbler; its claim to admission into the British fauna rests upon three or four specimens taken in different parts of the country, a pair having been shot near the Reculvers, in Kent, on the 29th September, 1842; they are now in the Margate Museum. In general conformation, the bird nearly resembles the previous species; it is about the same size, but rather more slender in make. The prevailing colour of the plumage is wood brown, with dusky markings; to

A LIVELY AND PLEASANT SONGSTER.

101

wards the rump a red tinge prevails, and there is a light red patch on each of the upper tail coverts; a whitish band extends from the nostrils over the eye; the throat is a beautiful ultramarine blue, margined beneath with dusky

spots; after which succeeds a patch of orange red, with white spots below, and then another band of blue, succeeded by a line of black, edged with white, beneath which is red again, fading off into whitish, which occupies the whole of the under parts. The song of this bird, which is not uncommon in various parts of the Continent during the summer and autumn, is said to be lively and pleasantly modulated, sometimes poured out when it is on the wing, and often heard in the dusk, or in the early part of the night. It frequents low moist places covered with grass, willows, and low bushes, among which its nest is placed; this is composed of withered stems and leaves, lined with finer materials of the same nature. The eggs are of a greenish blue colour, unspotted, nine-twelfths of an inch long, very like those of the common Redstart and Hedge Sparrow.

While singing, this bird, if undisturbed, perches on the tops of the brushwood or low trees; but on the least alarm it conceals itself among the low cover. It does not exhibit

the quivering motion of the tail peculiar to the Redstart; but very frequently jerks up, the tail in the manner of the Nightingale and Robin, and while singing, often spreads it. It frequently rises on wing a considerable height above the brushwood, singing, with the tail spread like a fan, and alights often at a distance of fifty or sixty yards from the spot where it rose. On approaching the nest when it contains their young, their notes of alarm or anger resemble those of the Nightingale's croak; the wings are then lowered, the tail spread and jerked up. The Bluethroat commences his song with the first dawn of day, and it may be heard in the evening when most of the feathered tribes are silent. These birds are caught in autumn by snares baited with berries.

Wood calls this the Blue-throated Fantail, and expresses surprise that it has been placed by almost every writer in the same genus as the Redstarts and the Redbreast, as it belongs most obviously to a different group, to the Wagtail sub-family (Motacillina).

"The Blue-throated Warbler, or Blue-throated Robin,' says Broderip, in his Zoological Recreations,' seldom deigns to visit us, although it is numerous as a summer visitor on the continent of Europe, where its beauty and voice do not save it from the cook; in Alsace, particularly, it is considered a great delicacy, and numbers are immolated for the table. It were to be wished that this elegant and pleasing songster would visit us more frequently: and as insects, earth-worms, and berries are its food, it seems singular that it does not favour us with its company; for Russia and Siberia, as well as Spain, France, Holland, Germany and Prussia, know it well.'