l66 SINGING BIRDS. 



have likewise heard individuals warble out a variety of sweet 

 and tender, trilling, rather loud and shrill notes, so superior to 

 the ordinary lay of incubation that the performer would 

 scarcely be supposed the same bird. On some occasions the 

 male also, when angry or alarmed, utters a loud and snapping 

 chirp. 



The nest of this elegant Sylvan Flycatcher is very neat and 

 substantial, fixed occasionally near the forks of a slender 

 hickory or beech sapling, but more generally fastened or agglu- 

 tinated to the depending branches or twigs of the former; 

 sometimes securely seated amidst the stout footstalks of the 

 waving foliage in the more usual manner of the delicate cradle 

 of the Indian Tailor Bird, but in the deep and cool shade of the 

 forest, instead of the blooming bower. Both parents, but par- 

 ticularly the male, exhibit great concern for the safety of their 

 nest, whether containing eggs only or young, and on its being 

 approached, the male will flit about within a few feet of the 

 invader, regardless of his personal safety, and exhibiting unequi- 

 vocal marks of distress. The parents also, in their solicitude 

 and fear, keep up an incessant ^tship when their infant brood 

 are even distantly approached. 



Nuttall classed the Redstart with the Flycatchers, as some of 

 its habits — such as darting from a perch, and capturing insects 

 while on the wing — are typical of that family; but the more mod- 

 ern systematists class it with the Wood Warblers. It is an abun- 

 dant summer resident of this eastern province, breeding from 

 about the valley of the Potomac to southern Labrador. 



