196 USEFUL BIRDS. 



eaten, among them the imago of the currant borer. Weevils 

 are greedily taken. A few useful beetles are sacrificed; 

 among them ground beetles, soldier beetles, and small scav- 

 enger beetles. The Yellow "Warbler has some expertness as 

 a flycatcher among the branches, and seizes small moths, like 

 the codling moth, with ease, but apparently does not take 

 many parasitic hymenoptera, though some flies are taken. 

 Plant lice sometimes form a considerable portion of its food. 

 No part of the tree where it can find insect food is exempt 

 from its visits, and it even takes grasshoppers, spiders, and 

 myriapods from the ground, grass, or low-growing herbage. 

 It usually leaves Massachusetts in August or early September. 



American Redstart. 



Selophaga ruticilla. 



Length. — Fiye to five and one-half inches. 



Adult Male. — Lustrous black; head, neck, and most of breast black; a wide 

 orange band across wing quills, and another across basal parts of all but 

 the middle tail feathers; sides of body and lining of wings flame color, 

 a tinge of which sometimes extends across the lower breast ; other lower 

 parts mainly white. 



Adult Female and Male of the First Year. — Similar, but without black; colors 

 paler, the black replaced above by gray and olive and below by white ; 

 orange replaced by yellow, and a whitish line in front of and around the 

 eye. Tail of young male darker toward tip than that of female. 



Nest. — A neat, compact structure, in upright fork of sapling or tree. 



Eggs. — Somewhat similar to those of the Yellow Warbler, but usually with 

 fewer and finer spots. 



Season. — May to September. 



This species arrives in Massachusetts about the second 

 week in May. Unlike the foregoing Warblers, it forages 

 habitually from the ground and low underbrush to the very 

 tops of the tallest trees. It is also a very active and expert 

 flycatcher. Its bill is broadened at the base and its mouth is 

 surrounded with bristles, like those of the Flycatchers and 

 some other families that take their' prey mostly upon the 

 wing. The Redstart is almost constantly in nervous motion, 

 darting and fluttering from twig to twig in pursuit of its 

 elusive prey. In all its movements its wings are held in 

 readiness for instant flight, and in its sinuous twistings and 

 turnings, risings and fallings, its colors expand, contract, and 

 glow amid the sylvan shades like a dancing torch in the 



