BREEDING.--This bird makes its nest in the holes of rocks and walls, particularly in high buildings, on the timbers of barns, and places it at a distance from any other. It is constructed of hay, mixed with the hair of animals. Each laying (for there are two in the year) consists of five or six white eggs. The young have a reddish grey plumage, and should be taken from the nest when the tail is half grown, if it is wished to rear them. They should be fed on ants' eggs, and white bread soaked in boiled milk. DISEASES.--These are the same as those of the fauvette. MODE OF TAKING.--Limed twigs, with meal-worms fastened to them, should be laid wherever these birds are most frequently found. Towards winter they may be caught in spring-traps with elderberries hung opposite. ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--Its call, "_fitza_," being very similar to the nightingale's, has given rise most probably to its name of Wall Nightingale, which it has in common with the following species. Its song certainly cannot enter into comparison with that of the nightingale, for it is sad, and consists of only three strains, the middle one scarcely more than croaking; the other two may boast of a few high clear tones; it may be heard from early in the morning till night. It is always gay and active, its motions light and nimble; it shakes its tail quickly from side to side at every hop or spring, and utters continually the cry "_fitza[100]!_" THE COMMON REDSTART. [Illustration] Motacilla Phoenicurus, LINNÆUS; Le Rossignol de muraille, BUFFON; Das Gemeiner oder Garten-Rothschwänzchen, BECHSTEIN. Its length is five inches and a quarter, of which the tail measures two and a quarter. The beak is five lines, the tip is blunt, black on the outside, yellow within and at the corners; the iris is black; the shanks are of the same colour, and ten lines high; the base of the upper mandible and cheeks are black, as also the throat, but this is speckled with white; the white on the front of the head unites with a streak of the same colour, which extends above the eyes; the back of the head and neck, the back and lesser wing-coverts, are dark ash grey tinged with a reddish colour; the rump, breast, and sides, are red inclining to orange. The female is very different, very much resembling that of the black redstart, yet its colours are rather lighter. The upper part of its body is reddish ash grey; the whitish throat is not clouded with black till the fifth or sixth year; the breast is dusky rust-red waved with white; the belly is dusky white; the rump is reddish yellow[101].