103 



AMERICAN REDSTART. 

 MUSCICAPA RUTICILLA. 

 [Plate VI.— Fig. 6.] 



Muscicapa liuticilla, Linn. Syst. I, 236, 10. — Gmel. Syst, I, 935. — Motacilla Jiavicaiida, 

 Gmel. Syst. I, 997. [female.) — Le Gobe-mouche d^Amerique^ Briss. Orn. II, 383, 14. 

 PL enl. 566, fig. 1, 2. — Small American Redstart^ Edw. 80. Id. 257. [female). — Yellow 

 tailed Warbler, Arct. Zool. II, No. 301. Id II, No. 282.— Latham Syn. IV, 427, 18.— 

 Arct. Zool. II, No. 301. (/^wa/^.)—PE ale's Museum, No. 6658. 



THO this bird has been classed by several of our most re- 

 spectable ornithologists among the warblers, yet in no species are 

 the characteristics of the genus Muscicapa more decisively mark- 

 ed; and in fact it is one of the most expert Flycatchers of its tribe. 

 It is almost perpetually in motion; and will pursue a retreating 

 party of flies from the tops of the tallest trees, in an almost perpen- 

 dicular, but zig-zag direction, to the ground, while the clicking of 

 its bill is distinctly heard ; and I doubt not but it often secures ten 

 or twelve of these in a descent of three or four seconds. It then 

 alights on an adjoining branch, traverses it lengthways for a few 

 moments, flirting its expanded tail from side to side, and suddenly 

 shoots off*, in a direction quite unexpected, after fresh game, which 

 it can discover at a great distance. Its notes, or twitter, tho ani- 

 mated and sprightly, are not deserving the name of song; some- 

 times they are xveese^ weese, weese, repeated every quarter of a 

 minute, as it skips among the branches ; at other times this twitter 

 varies to several other chants, which I can instantly distinguish in 

 the woods, but cannot find words to imitate. The interior of the 

 forest, the borders of swamps and meadows, deep glens covered 

 with wood, and wherever flying insects abound there this little bird 



