278 AMERICAN REDSTART. 
Redstart reascends, perches, and sings a different note, equally clear, and which may be 
expressed by the syllables wizz, wizz, wizz. While following insects on the wing, it 
keeps its bill constantly open, snapping as if it procured several of them on the same 
excursion. It is frequently observed balancing itself in the air, opposite the extremity 
of a bunch of leaves, and darting into the midst of them after the insects there con- 
cealed.” : 
In south-western Missouri we may look for the nest about May 20, and in 
Wisconsin about June 5. It usually breeds in mixed groves, in the gloomy forest, 
and in bottom woods. In a certain piece of damp woodland in northern Illinois, 
traversed by the Des Plaines River, I found about five to six nests in an hour’s walk. 
Oaks, elms, lindens, hickories, and black walnut trees, ashes, and, on the edge, many 
white-thorns, were the prevailing trees. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Towhees, Wood 
Thrushes, Blue Jays, and Red-eyed Vireos were very common, and on the woodland 
border many other birds occurred in great numbers. The nests, either saddled on a 
branch or placed in the upright forks of a small tree, are about eight to ten feet above 
the ground, but often much higher. They are very beautiful, cup-shaped, compact, and 
usually under a roof of dense leaves, which protect them from heavy rains and the fierce 
rays of the sun. The structure is mainly built of silvery asclepias fibres, bits of leaves, 
spider's webs, and is lined with fine bark-strips and frequently with hair. In Wisconsin 
the nests were ‘often built of fine hempen and milk-weed (asclepias) fibres, the wooly 
bark of the white cedar, pine needles, all held. together by spider’s webs. The lining 
consisted of horse-hair, pine needles, and fine grasses. In Missouri the nests are much 
coarser and looser, consisting almost entirely of grape-vine bark, fine grasses, and bits 
of old leaves. They are lined with fine strips of bark and grasses. “A rather curious 
nest, taken at Racine, Wisconsin, by Dr. P. R. Hoy, and now preserved in the National 
Museum, is attached entirely to one side of an upright fork, and setting away from the 
support altogether, excepting a small part of its circumference, which reaches down into 
the crotch. Another remarkable nest, taken in Massachusetts by Mr. George O. Welch, 
and described by Dr. Brewer, is a reconstruction of one begun by a pair of Summer 
Warblers, and either abandoned by the originators, or from which they had been driven 
away. The Red&tarts built upon this basis, constructing a nest of their own. The base 
was composed of the downy covering of the under-side of fern-leaves, with a few herba- 
ceous stems and leaves; within this was built an entirely distin€t nest, composed of 
long slender strips of bark, pine needles, and grass-stems. Ina third nest, found by the 
same writer in Hingham, Mass., the more usual bark-strips were replaced by hempen 
fibres, thistle down, bits of newspaper, and other matters. This nest was in a tree 
standing in an open space near a dwelling-house; another was in a swampy thicket, 
five feet from the ground; one of the northern nests Dr. Brewer notices was built in low 
willow bushes.” The eggs, usually four in number, are white, sometimes greenish or 
grayish-white, speckled and spotted with cinnamon-brown and lilac, chiefly in wreath- 
like manner round the larger end. Like many other Warblers’ eggs, they are subject to 
much variation in regard to size and coloring. The young which are able to leave the 
nest about twelve days after hatching, are fed with fine insects, such as mosquitoes, 
gnats, and very small moths. The food of the Redstart consists at all times almost 
