THE REDSTART. 373 



variety in the whistling tones, and the theme is always well 

 modulated. Like all bird-songs, it contains immeasurably 

 more than anything to which it can be likened. 



A view of this bird is even more gratifying than his song. 

 Something more than 5 inches long, the male is black, sides 

 of the breast, flanks, patches in the wing, and more than 

 the basal half of the tail feathers, except a few in the cen- 

 ter, reddish-orange, or flame-color; under parts from the 

 breast down, white. The female is olivaceous-slate, the 

 markings being bright yellow where the male has the flame- 

 color. Though resembling the Warblers in almost every 

 particular, the bill of the Redstart, in its flat, triangular 

 shape, with notch and hook at the end of the upper mandible 

 and its surrounding bristles, is like that of the Flycatchers. 

 Its habit, too, in taking food, suggests a similar relation. 



Among the bright foliage of this luxuriant month, he is 

 an object of uncommon beauty. How his glossy black sets 

 off his fiery orange markings as he flits from point to 

 point, spreading his tail with a jerking motion, and assum- 

 ing a great variety of attitudes in rapid succession as he 

 hunts his prey. 



The sharp chipping notes, mixed in with the varied com- 

 binations of his song, remind me that on the 23d of May, 

 about a week ago, I saw a female building her nest. As a 

 rule among all species of birds, the construction of the nest 

 is the work of the female. The male is the musician, the 

 female the architect. How diligent was this little Redstart 

 in the enterprise. Every few minutes she returned, her 

 mouth full of materials, which she arranged in the most ex- 

 pert manner. The outside completed, she would pitch into 

 the nest to adjust the lining, and turning round and round, 

 pressing her breast against one side and manipulating the 

 other with her feet, a wonderful symmetry and perfection 



