SOUTHERN AMERICAN REDSTART 661 



Another curious departure from the usual nesting habits of the red- 

 start is its use of old or deserted new nests of other species such as 

 the vireos. On June 5, 1898, in Yates County, N. Y., Verdi Burtch 

 (1898) found a red-eyed vireo's nest which had been newly lined with 

 red bark fibers that the redstart usually uses to line its nests in that 

 locality. The nest contained three fresh eggs of the redstart. Others 

 have come to my attention: Three in wliich red-eyed vireo's nests 

 were used, one in which a yellow-throated vireo's nest was used, and 

 another in which a nest started by a yellow warbler was used. Since 

 these instances were in widely separated places, it indicates the prac- 

 tice is not isolated or merely local. The nest is built entirely by the 

 female, which exhibits more than ordinary architectural ability. It is 

 a firm, compact structure composed of various plant and bark fibers, 

 small rootlets, and flexible grass stems. The outside walls are cov- 

 ered with plant fibers, ornamented with small lichens, bits of birch 

 bark, bud scales, seed pods, and vegetable down firmly bomid in with 

 a liberal use of spider web. The interior is lined with fine grasses, 

 weed and bark fibers, and often with the hair of horse or deer. 



Feathers of various kinds are frequently used, apparently as an 

 added decoration. These may be ordinary small chicken feathers, but 

 sometimes those of highly colored birds such as the tanager or indigo 

 bunting are chosen. Ernest H. Short (1893) gives an account of a 

 redstart's nest made up almost entirely of the feathers of a wood 

 thrush that had been killed by an owl near the nesting site. 



Each nesting season I put out masses of cotton and tow for various 

 birds to use as nesting material. A redstart which built its nest in a 

 tall, slender maple nearby not only used some of the long delicate 

 fibers of tow but studded the whole structure of the nest with small 

 tufts of cotton, giving it a most unusual appearance, not unlike many 

 similarly decorated yellow warbler's nests I have seen. The nest of 

 the redstart somewhat resembles that of the yellow warbler but it is a 

 neater structure with thinner walls, especially at the rim. It is higher 

 than wide and in this respect differs from the goldfinch's nest, which 

 is wider than high. 



The average dimensions of a series of nests are as follows : outside 

 diameter 2% inches, inside diameter li^ inches; outside depth 3 

 inches, and inside depth of the cup 1% inches. The chief departure 

 from these dimensions are of nests that are built in very narrow 

 crotches where the upright supporting branches are close together 

 at their point of origin. In such cases the birds continue to build 

 until a sufficient height is reached to give a satisfactory width. The 

 height of such nests may exceed 5 inches and are acutely V-shaped in 

 section. High nests also occur when the redstart builds over cow- 

 bird's eggs deposited before its own eggs have been laid. 



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