AMERICAN REDSTART 293 



"Has several distinct songs; the zee-zee-zee with the sharp, un- 

 finished ending, and the saw-filing one, Hke the Black and White 

 Creeper's, only more robust in quality, are the two I hear the oftenest." 

 (Farwell, MS.). 



"In some years I have found this species songless soon after the 

 beginning of July. In seasons when it thus becomes silent, singing is 

 resumed in the first part of August and continues for two or three 

 weeks. But the period of July silence is inconstant and sometimes 

 , singing is little interrupted through the month. When this is the 

 case singing seems to cease finally at the end of the month, or early in 

 August, and is followed by no supplementary song-period. * * * In 

 the summer a song is commonly heard from the Redstart which is 

 weaker and otherwise different from the normal, and which is probably 

 produced by immature males." (Bicknell.) 



"Of all the Wood Warblers I know, the Redstart comes nearest 

 to spoiling the rule that an adult Warbler's song can never be wholly 

 disguised for the practiced human ear. The bird is, indeed, an almost 

 lawlessly versatile songster, and few and far between must be the 

 bird-students who could not be mystified by any of the occasional 

 extreme vagaries of its singing. The fundamental tone-quality varies 

 as widely, though not as commonly, as the form and accentuation. 

 Time after time have I been puzzled by some perfectly new and sur- 

 prising freak of Redstart song, and that after years of acquaintance 

 with the bird's varied singing. Ranking on the whole among the 

 full-voiced Warblers, and singing commonly in a smooth, clear tone, 

 he will come out sometimes with a bunch of weak, buzzy notes, like 

 an exaggeration of all that is peculiar in the Parula's song, and in 

 almost every detail of form and delivery widely different from a nor- 

 mal Redstart utterance. Again, he will shrill in hair-thin, glassy notes, 

 like a Blackpoll, or loudly wheeze like a Black-throated Blue ; and 

 sometimes he will combine one or more of these foreign song-tones in 

 one phrase with his normal, clear, strong notes. As for the variations 

 and strange hybridisms of his phrasing and accenting, they are quite 

 beyond classification or description. One hears a noticeable new one 

 every few days, in summer, if one lives among New Hampshire Red- 

 starts. It is hard even to decide whether the bird should be said to 

 have one main song, or two, or three, or four, or five. But I believe 

 that three are comparatively constant, and could perhaps be traced as 

 the bases of all the variations. To add to the confusion of the matter, 

 the young males, for two years dull-colored, sing almost as freely as 

 their black-and-orange fathers ; but, — especially in the first autumn, — 



