BIRDS OF NEW YORK 



467 



The Redstart 



' ching, ching, 



placing it among the true flycatchers. As it flutters about the fohage 

 it carries the wings and tail partially expanded, being even more addicted 

 to this habit than the Magnolia warbler or any member of the family 

 with which I am familiar. The general resemblance to the flitting of a 

 butterfly has often been remarked by bird students with whom I have 

 visited its haunts. 



The call note of the Redstart is a characteristic tsip. 

 has several distinct songs. Chapman syllables one as 

 chee; ser-wee, swee, swee-e-e.^' Another 

 is often written " zee-zee-zee,'' sharp 

 and rasping in tone, suggestive of the 

 Black and white warbler's. Sometimes 

 it has a resemblance to the buzz of the 

 Parula's song; again to the wheezing of 

 the Black-throated blue. It is always 

 so thin and wiry in quality that the 

 author is unable to hear it for more 

 than twice the distance of the Black- 

 poll warbler's song. 



In my experience the nest of the 

 Redstart is the most neatly constructed 

 of any of our warblers' nests, though 

 not so elaborate or so highly orna- 

 mented as some. The materials used 



are fine shreds of plant down, the thin gray outer covering of milkweed 

 stalks, spiders' webs, the inner bark of vines, and grasses, woven into a 

 thin but compact and shapely cup, lined with fine grasses and thin 

 brown shreds of bark and brownish root fibers and long horse hair; 

 rarely a few feathers are found in its construction. The nest is usually 

 placed in the upright fork of a sapling from 6 to 12 feet from the 

 ground although I have found many nests in oaks, maples and beeches 



at a height of 20 and even 35 feet. The eggs are 3 to 5 in number, 

 30 



Photo by L. S. Horton 

 American redstart on nest 



