The ornithology of Francis Willughby of Middleton in the county of Warwick Esq, fellow of the Royal Society in three books : wherein all the birds hitherto known, being reduced into a method sutable to their natures, are accurately described : the descriptions illustrated by most elegant figures, nearly resembling the live birds, engraven in LXXVII copper plates : translated into English, and enlarged with many additions throughout the whole work : to which are added, Three considerable discourses, I. of the art of fowling, with a description of several nets in two large copper plates, II. of the ordering of singing birds, III. of falconry / by John Ray ...

CHAP. VII. The Redstart, Ruticilla, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

THe Breast, Rump, and sides under the Wings are red: The lower Belly white: The Head, Neck, and Back of a lead-colour. The forehead marked with a white spot, separated from the Eyes and Bill by a black line, although it seems to be produced beyond the Eyes to the hinder part of the Head, and to en∣compass the crown of the head (which is, as we said, of a lead colour.) The Throat and Cheeks under the Eyes black, with a mixture of grey in the ends of the feathers. In the Female the Back is of a dusky ash-colour: The Throat of a paler cinereous: The Breast red; the Belly white.

The quill-feathers in each Wing eighteen, as in other small birds, all dusky: The upper covert-feathers black, the nether red. The Tail is made up of the usual num∣ber of twelve feathers, of which the five outmost on each side are red, the two mid∣dlemost dusky, two inches and an half long.

The Bill is black: The Legs also are black in the Cock; in the Hen both Bill and feet are paler. The lowest bone of the outer Toe is joyned to that of the middle Toe. The Tongue is cloven: The mouth within yellow: The Irides of the Eyes of a hazel colour. The Eyes are furnished with nictating membranes.

It feeds upon Beetles, and other Insects, and comes to us in Summer-time.

It weighs half an ounce, is five inches long, and nine broad.

This bird, saith a late English Writer, is of a very dogged sullen temper: For if taken old, and ordered as formerly directed in the Nightingale, he will be sometimes so dogged as in ten days time never to look toward the meat, and when he feeds him∣self to continue a whole month without singing. This is also the shiest of all birds, for if she perceive you to mind her when she is building, she will forsake what she hath 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, as I found by experience more than once. The Young are to be taken at ten days old, and to be fed and ordered as the Nightingales. Keep them warm in Winter, and they will sing as well in the night as the day, and will learn to whistle and imitate other birds. Taken young, and brought up, they become gentle and very tame.

Besides this common Redstart, Gesner and Aldrovand describe several other kinds, as 1. That which Aldrovandus makes his third, which Gesner describes thus: Its fore∣head is marked with a white spot: The feathers under the Bill are black. The Head and Back are of a cinereous or dusky colour. The Wing-feathers are dusky, mo∣derately inclining to red. The Breast, Belly, and Tail are red; but the lower Belly whitish. The Tail consists of * 1.1 eight feathers. For bigness this bird is inferiour to the great Titmouse or Ox-eye, equal to the Robin-red-breast. Its Bill is black, slender, long and streight.

The fourth of Aldrovand is in all points like this, save that the white spot on the forehead is changed into a long line: The Breast also seems to be more cinereous, and the lower belly not white.

2. The Rotschwentzel of Gesner, so called from the redness of the Tail, the descripti∣on whereof he took from a Picture sent him from Strasburgh: Therefore we shall

add no more concerning it, esteeming such Pictures less exact, and not much to be relied upon, who will may see the description in Gesner, or Aldrovand out of him.

3. The Bird called Wegflecklin about Strasburgh, Gesn. Its Breast was blue, the part between the Breast and Belly of a pale or yellowish red; which colour also the up∣per side of the Tail feathers, but not to the end, and those about the Rump, were of. The Bill is short, the Belly cinereous, not white, as the Strasburgh Picture represents it; the Legs dusky, not red, as in that Picture; and the feathers under the Bill not blue, but dusky and particoloured. The German name is imposed upon it partly from the ways; for it is much conversant about high ways, roads, and fields, and thence (as we guess) picks up worms and seeds that it finds on the ground; partly from the blue spot on its Breast, as I conjecture.

The Redstart (saith Aldrovandus) abides with us all the Summer, but in the end of the Autumn it either flies away, or hides it self, and in the Spring-time returns to us again. It feeds upon the same things the Robin-red-breast doth, to wit, flies, crums of bread, Ants Eggs, and if I be not deceived, Spiders too. It builds its Nest in hol∣low trees.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Either this place is mis∣printed, or Gesner sure mistaken in the number of feathers: For all the Europaean small birds I ever saw or heard of have twelve feathers in their Tails. Gesners Rotsch∣wentzel Aldr. tom. 3. p. 748.