THE AMERICAN REDSTART. 



Nor is there any lack of interest in the life of tliis golden midget. Have 

 you never wished that you were tiny — oh, lectty — witli jjcady black eyes, tiiat 

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

 to you like great blue pipjjins? and niadrone berries like luscious ticry pump- 

 kins? tliat you might pluck a tiiousand sa|)id meats at first hand where now 

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

 That you might — .\h, here I have you! — that you might pantingly inirsue a 

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

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

 creature! She's given me the slip again! Never mind: 111 jiause and sing: 



OOOOOc'cc'c'c'c'c'c' 00000. 



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

 moflulated swell of sharp staccato notes of little resonance but greater ]M>wer 

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

 increasint; cm])hasis, (7m'/> </m7> chip chip CHIP CHIP. The singer is very 

 nnidi in earnest, and compels attention in s])ite of his utter lack of musical 

 ability. Late in .\ugust, the j6th it was, 1 ])rovoked a Rlack-caj) at Mlaine by 

 scrceping. luitil he sang merely to relieve his feelings, chip chip CHIP chip 

 chip chip chip, the precise type of the Pileolated Warbler, //'. p. pilcolala 

 proper. The only other variant in my collection is tsc'v tsm.- tsca' t.<;cc t.^cc 

 tscc. 7i'hhhachit\'. — the last note, somcwhal whimsically represented here, be- 

 ing an intense guttural trill very dilVicult to cliaracterize. 



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

 the nesting habits of this dainty wood nym])h. and they reimrt a marked par- 

 tialilv in its nesting for the vicinity of woodland ])atlis. log-roads, and the 

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

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

 nests examined only one, in a bracken, was more than two feet alnive the 

 ground. an<l none were less than ten inches. The nest is quite a bidky affair, 

 vet compact centrally. comjKised externally of co])ii(ns rlried leaves and twigs: 

 inlernallv of fine grasses and interwoven rootlets. The l)irds (piit the nest 

 unobserveil ami the Ihiding of une of tlicir ilomiciles is a tn;itter <>f h:\n\ work. 



AMKRK.W RI.DSI .\R'r. 



.\. O. V. \o. 687. Setopha^a niticilla 1 I, inn. 1. 



Description.- ./(/i(// male: Head and neck all around and breast shining 

 black : remaining nppiri)arts 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 concealerl patch of same color at base of primaries : the outer 



