THE AMERICAN REDSTART. 



93 



continued his benevolent offices the whole day, roost- 

 ing at night as before. On the third or fourth day, 

 he appeared extremely solicitous for the liberation 

 of his charge, using every expression of distressful 

 anxiety, and every call and invitation that Nature 

 had put in his power, for him to come out. This 

 was too much for the feelings of my venerable friend ; 

 he procured a ladder, and, mounting to the spot 

 where the bird was suspended, opened the cage, took 

 out the prisoner, and restored him to liberty and to 

 his parent, who, with notes of great exultation, ac- 

 companied his flight to the woods ! ' 



The Tanager family embraces not only the Tana- 

 ger proper, but the American Wood Warblers. The 

 latter are most numerous in the Northern continent, 

 as the former abound in the Southern. 



One of the most 

 beautiful and in- 

 teresting of the 

 Wood Warblers is 

 the American Red- 

 start. This gay 

 little bird is more 

 noticeable in the 

 early months of 

 Spring, when it 

 may be seen in 

 company with many 

 other species of its kind, nimbly flitting from tree to 

 tree, and from twig to twig, in search of insects, of 

 which it is a very expert hunter; it will sometimes 



American Redstart. 



