512 AVES—FLYCATCHER...NIGHTINGALE. 
can instantly distinguish in the woods. It is sure to be seen in the interio 
of forests, the borders of swamps, and meadows, and in deep glens covered 
with wood, and wherever flying insects abound. It is very generally found 
in the United States. 
The name redstart has been given to it from 1ts supposed resemblance to 
the redstart of Europe. It builds in low bushes; the nest is built of flax 
moistened with saliva, and lined with soft down. The male is extremely 
anxious for its preservation, and on any one’s approaching the place, will flit 
about within a few feet, seeming greatly distressed. 
This bird is five inches long; the general color above is black, glossed 
with blue; the sides of the breast, part of the wings and tail, of a fine orange, 
and the under parts white. 

THE NIGHLANGALE 

Visits England in the beginning of April, and leaves it in September. Itis 
found but in some of the southern parts of that country, being totally un- 
known in Scotland, Ireland, or North Wales. They frequent thick hedges 
and low coppices, and generally keep in the middle of the bush, so that they 
are rarely seen. It is not by the beauty of his plumage that this universally 
admired bird has become a general favorite, and the theme of almust every 
poet; for he is one of those warblers which are the most humbly attired. 
He is about six inches long, and the upper part of his body is of a rusty 


1 Sylvia luscinia, Latu. The genus Sylvia has the bill straight, slender, awl-shaped, 
the base deeper than broad ; point of the upper mandible frequently notched, the under 
one straight ; nostrils basal, lateral, ovoid, partly covered by a membrane ; tarsus longer 
than the middle toe; the exterior toe joined at its hase to the middle one; first quill 
fecther very short, or none ; second scarcely exceeding the third ; great wing-coverts much 
shorter than the quill feathers. 
