176 SYLVICOLID^ : AMERICAN WARBLERS. 



rest. Early in June the nest may be sought, in mixed 

 woody groves, in the fork of a shrub or sapling, from 

 five to twenty feet from the ground. It is a neat, com- 

 pact structure, composed of bark-strips, grasses, and 

 miscellaneous material, lined with fine grass-stems, 

 thistle, fern, or other plant-down, sometimes with horse- 

 hair, caterpillars' silk, or spiders'-web. The whole fab- 

 ric may be stuccoed as well as lined with such soft sub- 

 stances. The eggs are four or five in number, and 

 measure from 0.58 to 0.68 in length by 0.48 to 0.52 in 

 breadth. They are white, usually heavily spotted, 

 especially on the larger part, with dull or pale brown- 

 ish surface-markings of several shades, together with 

 the usual shell-spots of purplish or lavender — the 

 latter being simply brown spots in, not on the shell, 

 as in other cases of the kind. The Redstart, as may 

 be supposed, is entirely insectivorous. Though so 

 expert a fly-catcher, of striking address on the wing, 

 it is said by several writers to frequently glean insects 

 on the ground. 



