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250 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
of soft lichens, caterpillars’ silk, and down from the ferns. 
It is deeply hollowed, and lined with thin strips of grape-vine 
bark and cottony substances, and sometimes a few hairs or 
fibrous roots. Nuttall, in describing the nest, says “ the 
lining is neither soft nor downy ;”’ but Wilson and Audubon 
both assert to the contrary. I have examined a great num- 
ber of the nests, and have found them to agree with the 
foregoing description. The eggs are usually four in number. 
Their color is a beautiful creamy-white, which is covered, 
more or less thickly, with spots of reddish-brown and lilac. 
Average dimensions of eggs, about .63 by .50 inch. 
Perhaps the best description I can give of the habits of 
this bird is to say that they are a combination of those 
of the Flycatchers and Warblers; for, like the former, it 
pursues flying insects in the air, and seizes them with a 
loud snapping of the bill, and, like the latter, gleans indus- 
triously for them among the foliage and branches of trees. 
The note of the Red Start is a shrill chewéea, which is 
uttered at intervals of perhaps a half or whole minute. 
I have not noticed that it prefers any particular locality ; 
but it seems to frequent the woods, pastures, and orchards 
in equal abundance: and I have known of a pair building, 
and rearing a brood, in a garden, within five rods of a house. 
About the 15th of September, the Red Start leaves for 
the South; and, after the 20th of that month, none are to 
be seen in New England. 
Sub-Family Tanacrina.—The Tanagers. 
PYRANGA, VIEILLorT. 
. 
Pyranga, Vie1.uor, Ois. Am. Sept., I. (1807) IV. J., Analyse (1816), 32. 
Sclater, Pr. Zool. Soc. (1856), 123. 
Bill somewhat straight; sub-conical, cylindrical, notched at tip; culmen moder- 
ately curved; commissure with a median acute lobe; wings elongated; the four first 
primaries about equal; tail moderate, slightly forked. Colors of the male chiefly 
scarlet, of the female yellowish. 
