2IO THE AMERICAN REDSTART. 



Nor is tliere any lack of interest in the life of this golden midget. Have 

 you never wished that you were tiny — oh, teeny — with beady black eyes, that 

 you might explore the mysteries of a moss forest? that elderberries might look 

 to you like great blue pippins? and madrone berries like luscious fiery pump- 

 kins? that you might pluck a thousand sapid meats at first hand where now 

 you know only a few "staples," disguised by the meretricious arts of cookery? 

 That you might — Ah, here I have you ! — that you might pantingly pursue a 

 golden maiden down dim forest aisles, over plunging billows of spiraea blos- 

 soms, past corridors of giant sword-fern, into — Oh, where is that maddening 

 creature! She's given me the slip again! Never mind: I'll i^ause and sing: 

 00 ooc'c'c'e'e'e'e'e' 00000. 



Truth to tell, the song just recorded is one of the rarest, a perfectly 

 modulated swell of sharp staccato notes of little resonance but greater power 

 and intensity. The ordinary song is a series of monosyllables uttered with 

 increasing emphasis, i/n'/' chip chip chip CHIP CHIP. The singer is very 

 much in earnest, and compels attention in spite of his utter lack of musical 

 ability. Late in August, the 26th it was, I provoked a Black-cap at Blaine by 

 screeping. until he sang merely to relieve his feelings, chip chip CHIP chip 

 chip chip chip, the precise type nf the Pileolated Warbler. ]]'. p. pilcolafa 

 proper. The only other variant in my collection is tscw tsc7V fscw f.^cc fscc 

 tsee. whhhackity, — the last note, somewhat whimsically represented here, be- 

 ing an intense guttural trill very difficult to characterize. 



Messrs. Rathbun and Renick. i)f Seattle, have made a special study of 

 the nesting habits of this dainty wood nymph, and they rejiort a marked par- 

 tiality in its nesting for the vicinity of woodland paths, log-roads, and the 

 smaller openings in the logged-off sections. The favorite host is a cedar sap- 

 ling, a mere baliy tree with stem only half an inch or so in diameter. Of nine 

 nests examined only one, in a Iiracken. was more than two feet above the 

 ground, and none were less than ten inches. The nest is quite a bulky affair, 

 yet comjiact centrally, composed externally of copious dried leaves and twigs ; 

 internally of fine grasses and interwoven rootlets. The birds quit the nest 

 unobserved and the finding i>f one of their domiciles is a matter of hard work. 



No. 86. 



AMERICAN REDSTART. 



A. O. U. No. 687. Setophaga riiticilla (Linn.l. 



Description. — Adult male: Head and neck all around and breast shining 

 black ; remaining upperparts dull black with glossy patches, changing to brownish 

 black or fuscous on wings : a large salmon-colored patch at base of secondaries ; a 

 smaller, nearly concealed patch of same color at base of primaries ; the outer 



