THE AMERICAN REDSTART. 241 



which may be expressed by the syllables wizz, wizz, wizz. While follow- 

 ing 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 concealed. 



"When one approaches the nest of this species, the male exhibits the great- 

 est anxiety respecting its safety, passes and repasses, fluttering and snapping 

 its bill within a few feet, as if determined to repel the intruder. They now 

 and then alight on the ground, to secure an insect, but this only for a mo- 

 ment. They are more frequently seen climbing along the trunks and large 

 branches of trees for an instant, and then shifting to a branch, being, as I 

 have said, in perpetual motion. It is also fond of giving chase to various 

 birds, snapping at them without any effect, as if solely for the purpose of 

 keeping up the natural liveliness of its disposition. 



The young males of this species do not possess the brilliancy and richness 

 of plumage which the old birds display, until the second year, the first being 

 spent in the garb worn by the females; but, towards the second autumn, ap- 

 pear mottled with pure black and vermilion on their sides. Notwithstand- 

 ing their want of full plumage, they breed and sing the first spring like the 

 old males. 



I have looked for several minutes at a time on the ineffectual attacks which 

 this bird makes on wasps while busily occupied about their own nests. The 

 bird approaches and snaps at them, but in vain; for the wasp elevating its 

 abdomen, protrudes its sting, which prevents its being seized. The male 

 bird is represented in the plate in this posture. 



Its nest is generally made on a low bush or sapling, and has the appearance 

 of hanging to the twigs. It is slight, and is composed of lichens and dried 

 fibres of rank weeds or grape vines, nicely lined with soft cottony materials. 

 The female lays from four to six white eggs, sprinkled with ash-grey and 

 blackish dots. It rears only a single brood in a season. The old birds, I am 

 inclined to think, leave the United States a month or three weeks before the 

 young, some of which linger in the deep swamps of the States of Mississippi 

 and Louisiana until the beginning of November. 



This bird differs in no essential respect from the Flycatchers above men- 

 tioned. Its mouth has the same structure, being only a little more concave 

 in front. The tongue is of the same form, but proportionally narrower, its 

 tip slit. The oesophagus is 1 inch 8 twelfths long, its average width 1 twelfth. 

 The stomach A\ twelfths by 3f twelfths. Intestine 3 inches 10 twelfths long, 

 its greatest width barely 1 twelfth; cceca little more than \ twelfth long, and 

 1\ twelfths distant from the extremity. Trachea H inch long, of 55 rings, 



