The beauty of its plumage, its sprightly and at times incessant song, and the good which it effects in ridding plants and fruit-trees of the green _aphis_, commend it to the notice and protection of all owners of gardens.
The Common Redstart has scarcely quitted our shores in autumn before its congener, the Black Redstart (_Ruticilla tithys_), arrives to pass the winter here, and occasionally even to linger on until the more familiar species returns again with the spring. But since it is properly regarded as a winter visitant to this country, any lengthened description of the species, and of its haunts and habits, would be out of place here. I shall therefore merely observe that it may be distinguished from the Common Redstart by the sooty-black colour of the breast and belly, which parts in the other are orange-brown, and that it generally arrives about the first week in November, and remains until the end of March or beginning of April.
The origin of the specific name “_tithys_” seems to be somewhat doubtful, although several ornithologists have attempted an explanation. Hemprich and Ehrenberg (“Symbolæ Physicæ,” fol. bb), and Von Heuglin (“Orn. Nord-Ost Afrika’s,” i. p. 334) have referred it to τίτης, _ultor_, with which, however, in the opinion of Professor Newton (“Ann. Mag. Nat. History,” Ser. 4, x. p. 227), it can have nothing to do. Professor Newton himself, in the magazine just quoted, and in a footnote to his edition of Yarrell’s “History of British Birds,” i. p. 333, writes: “_Sylvia tithys_ (by mistake) Scopoli, Annus I. Historico-naturalis, p. 157 (1769). This naturalist admittedly took his specific name from Linnæus, who spelt the word ‘_titys_’ as did Gesner; but the best classical authorities, Stephanus, Porson, and Passow, consider ‘_titis_’ to be right. This originally meant a small chirping bird, and is possibly cognate with the first syllable of our _tit_mouse and _tit_lark.” After the opinion expressed by such authorities, it may appear somewhat presumptuous on my part to offer a suggestion; but there is yet another explanation, which has apparently been overlooked. Might not the word “_tithys_” (more correctly “_tithus_”) be derived from the Greek adjective τιθός, θή, θόν, which has the same signification as τιθασός, that is, ‘reared up in the house, domesticated.’ Compare the domestic hens of Dioscorides, τιθαὶ ὄρνιθες. The term “domesticated” would be well applied to the Black Redstart, which is a very familiar bird, frequently perching on house-tops and garden walls, and building in holes and crannies in the neighbourhood of man’s dwelling.