THE AMERICAN REDSTART. 



179 



ical America, where, in the perpetual spring and summer of the larger 



West India 

 islands, the spe- 

 cies again tind 

 means of support. 

 At length, insti- 

 gated bj more 

 powerful feelings 

 than those of 

 ordinary want 

 the male, no'tf 

 clad in hia 

 beautiA.il nuptial 

 livery, and ac- 

 companied by his 

 mate, seeks anew 

 the friendly but 

 far distant natal 



AMERICAN REDSTART. 



regions of hia 



race. In no haste, the playful Redstart does not appear in Pennsylvania 

 until late in April. The month of May, about the close of the first 

 week, ushers his arrival into the states of New England ; but in Louis- 

 iana he is seen as early as the beginning of March. He is no pensioner 

 upon the bounty of man. Though sometimes seen, on his first arrival, 

 in the darkest part of the orchard or garden, or by the meandering 

 brook, he seeks to elude observation, and now, the great object of hia 

 migrations having arrived, he retires with his mate to the thickest of 

 the sylvan shade. Like his relative Sylvias, he is full of life and in 

 perpetual motion. He does not, like the loitering Pewee, wait the 

 accidental approach of his insect prey, but carrying the war amongst 

 them, he is seen flitting from bough to bough, or at times pursuing 



the flying troop 

 of winged insects 

 from the top of 

 the tallest tree in 

 a zig-zag, hawk- 

 like, descending 

 flight, to the 

 ground, while the 

 clincking of the 

 bill declares dis- 

 tinctly both his 

 object and success 

 Then alighting on 

 some adjoining 

 branch, intently 

 watching, with hia 

 head extended, he 

 runs along upon it for an instant or two, flirting like a fan hia 

 expanded brilliant tail from side to side, and again suddenly shoots 



REST OF THE AMERICAN REDSTART. 



