292 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



continent, being found in Canada, in the remote interior 

 near Red river in the latitude of 49°, and throughout 

 Louisiana and Arkansa, probably as^far as Mexico ; in all 

 of which vast countries it familiarly breeds and resides 

 during the mild season, withdrawing early in September 

 to tropical America, where, in the perpetual spring and 

 summer of the larger West India islands, the species 

 again finds means of support. At length, instigated by 

 more powerful feelings than those of ordinary want, the 

 male, now clad in his beautiful nuptial livery, and ac- 

 companied by his mate, seeks anew the friendly but far 

 distant natal regions of his race. In no haste, the play- 

 ful Redstart does not appear in Pennsylvania until late in 

 April. The month of May, about the close of the first 

 week, ushers his arrival into the states of New England ; 

 but in Louisiana he is seen as early as the beginning of 

 March. He is no pensioner upon the bounty of man. 

 Though sometimes seen, on his first arrival, in the dark- 

 est part of the orchard or garden, or by the meander- 

 ing brook, he seeks to elude observation, and now, the 

 great object of his migrations having arrived, he retires 

 with his mate to the thickest of the sylvan shade. Like 

 his relative Sylvias, he is full of life and in perpetual 

 motion. He does not, like the loitering Pewee, wait the 

 accidental approach of his insect prey, but carrying the 

 war amongst them, he is seen flitting from bough to 

 bough, or at times pursuing the flying troop of winged 

 insects from the top of the tallest tree in a zig-zag, hawk- 

 like, descending flight, to the ground, while the clicking 

 of his bill declares distinctly both his object and success. 

 Then alighting on some adjoining branch, intently watch- 

 ing, with his head extended, he runs along upon it for an 

 instant or two, flirting like a fan his expanded brilliant 

 tail from side to side, and again suddenly shoots off like 



