REDSTART a bird well known in Great Britain, in many parts of which it is called Firetail—a name of almost the same meaning, since “start” is from the Anglo-Saxon steort, a tail. This beautiful bird, the Huticilla phoenicurus of most ornithologists, returns to England about the middle or towards the end of April, and at once takes up its abode in gardens, orchards, and about old buildings, when its curious habit of flirting at nearly every change of position its brightly-coloured tail, together with the pure white forehead, the black throat, and bright bay breast of the cock, renders him conspicuous, even if attention be not drawn by his lively and pleasing though short and intermittent song. The hen is much more plainly attired; but the characteristic colouring and action of the tail pertain to her equally as to her mate. The nest is almost always placed in a hole, whether of a tree or of a more or less ruined building, and contains from five to seven eggs of a delicate greenish-blue, occasionally sprinkled with faint red spots. The young on assuming their feathers present a great resemblance to those of the Redbreast (supra, p. 314) at the same age; but the red tail, though of duller hue than in the adult, forms even at this early age an easy means of distinguishing them. The Redstart breeds regularly in all the counties of England and Wales; but, except in such localities as have been already named, it is seldom plentiful. It also reaches the extreme north of Scotland; but in Ireland it is of very rare occurrence. It appears throughout the whole of Europe in summer, and is known to winter in the interior of Africa. To the eastward its limits cannot yet be exactly defined, as several very nearly allied forms occur in Asia; and one, R. aurorea, represents it in ...