198 USEFUL BIRDS. 
the tree insects which it pursues unless they reach the upper 
air, where the Redstart seldom goes, except in migration. 
It has been named the flycatcher of the inner tree tops, but 
it is a flycatcher of the bush tops as well. While there are 
few small pests of deciduous trees that it does not eat in 
some form, it is not confined to these trees, but forages more 
or less among coniferous trees. Also it is seen at times in 
orchards, and gleans among shade trees in localities where 
the woods are cut away. Itis impossible to weigh the pros 
and cons of -this bird’s food, for no thorough examination of 
it has ever been made. It is an efficient caterpillar hunter, 
and one of the most destructive enemies of the smaller hairy 
caterpillars. It catches bugs, moths, gnats, two-winged flies, 
small grasshoppers, and beetles. It probably secures a larger 
proportion of parasitic hymenoptera and diptera than most 
other Warblers, occasionally destroying a few wasps ; other- 
wise, its habits seem to be entirely beneficial. 
Black-throated Green Warbler. 
Dendroica virens. 
Length. — About five inches. 
Adult Male.— Olive above; sides of head and neck yellow, often with darker 
line through eye; chin, throat, and breast black ; belly white; sides striped 
with blackish; wings and tail dark; white wing bars; outer tail feathers 
marked with white. 
Adult Female.— Yellow duller; black of throat largely obscured by gray. 
Nest.— Usually fifteen to fifty feet up in a white pine, in a fork toward the end 
of a branch ; made of bark, twigs, and grasses, and lined with soft materials. 
Eggs.— Creamy white, with brown and purplish markings grouped toward the 
larger end. 
Season. — April to October. 
The Warblers noted in the pages immediately preceding 
live largely among deciduous trees and shrubbery; but 
this species dwells by choice among coniferous trees, and 
in Massachusetts it stays principally in groves of white 
pine. While migrating in spring and fall it feeds anywhere 
in mixed deciduous woods, but it is evidently more at home 
among the pines, where it gleans its usual food from the 
lower branches to the tree tops. This bird does not com- 
monly descend to the ground except to procure nesting 
material or to bathe. 
