BEHAVIOR OP THE REDSTART 341 



to be put on and off each year j but that the change is pro- 

 gressive from the first, and completed toward the end of the 

 third year. 



The Eedstart shines among the birds that throng the woods 

 in spring, when his transparent beauty flashes like a lambent 

 tongue of flame at play imidst the tender pale green foliage of 

 the trees. The brilliant little meteor glances here and there in 

 seeming sport, with most exuberant vivacity, as if delighted to 

 display in every action of his tiny body the full effect of color- 

 contrast, shifting every moment into novel combinations with 

 the cool shade of the background, himself the foremost figure 

 of an animated picture. But with all this grace and elegance, 

 this revelry and waywardness, when color plays the pleasing 

 part of a continual surprise, the Kedstart has an eye to busi- 

 ness, and incessantly pursues the gauzy creatures that furnish 

 food to him and all his kind. You may know him even in his 

 early incompleted dress, and never fail to recognize his less con- 

 spicuous mate, by several characteristic traits. In their unceas- 

 ing forays on the insect world, they have a fashion of skipping 

 rapidly along the larger horizontal boughs of trees, with lowered 

 head and drooping wings, and with incessant sidewise flirting 

 of the fan-shaped tail, that best displays its pretty parti-color- 

 ation, the attitude and action being exactly those you have 

 observed in the poultry-yard, when the sultan of the harem 

 pursues a reluctant fugitive. These headstrong raids along the 

 limbs are changed at intervals, when still more buoyant and 

 more dexterous action absorbs the ceaseless stream of the Bed- 

 start's energy ; without a moment's pause, the birds shoot out, 

 to this side or to that, and capture insects on the wing in the 

 most spirited manner; they dart in zigzag, generally downward, 

 while the repeated clicking of their mandibles, as turn after 

 turn is executed at seeming random, yet with admirable precis- 

 ion, tells with what success these dashing guerillas wage their 

 warfare. Such raids are made right through the ranks of the 

 airy little insects that swarm in the sunbeams, and at every 

 descent into their midst not one, but many, of the midges meet 

 their fate ; the Flycatcher regains his foothold with marvellous 

 celerity, and races as before along the limb, with many a twitter 

 of delight, till he is lost to view. 



The Eedstart's notes are very curious ; though scarcely de- 

 scribable, they are easily learned, and not likely to be forgotten 

 after they have been heard a few times j and indeed one may 



