REDSTART. 
i6s 
Redstart does not appear in Pennsylvania until late in April. 
The month of May, about the close of the first week, ushers 
his arrival into the States of New England; but in Louisiana 
he is seen as early as the beginning of March. He is no pen- 
sioner upon the bounty of man. Though sometimes seen, on 
his first arrival, in the darkest part of the orchard or garden, 
or by the meandering brook, he seeks to elude observation, 
and now, the great object of his migrations having arrived, he 
retires with his mate to the thickest of the sylvan shade. Like 
his relative Sylvias, he is full of life and in perpetual motion. 
He does not, like the loitering Pewee, wait the accidental ap- 
proach of his insect prey, but carrying the war amongst them, 
he is seen flitting from bough to bough, or at times pursuing 
the flying troop of winged insects from the top of the tallest 
tree in a zig-zag, hawk-like, descending flight, to the ground, 
while the clicking of the bill declares distinctly both his object 
and success. Then alighting on some adjoining branch, in- 
tently watching with his head extended, he runs along upon it 
for an instant or two, flirting like a fan his expanded, brilliant 
tail from side to side, and again suddenly shoots off like an 
arrow in a new direction, after the fresh game he has discov- 
ered in the distance, and for which he appeared to be recon- 
noitring. At first the males are seen engaged in active strife, 
pursuing each other in wide circles through the forest. The 
female seeks out her prey with less action and flirting, and in 
her manners resembles the ordinary Sylvias. 
The notes of the male, though not possessed of great com- 
pass, are highly musical, and at times sweet and agreeably 
varied like those of the Warblers. Many of these tones, as they 
are mere trills of harmony, cannot be recalled by any words. 
Their song on their first arrival is however nearly uniform, and 
greatly resembles the ''tsh ’tsh tsh ishee, tshe, tshe, tshe tshea, or 'tsh 
'tsh 'tsh 'tshitshee of the summer Yellow Bird {Sylvia cestiva ) , 
uttered in a piercing and rather slender tone ; now and then 
also agreeably varied with a somewhat plaintive flowing 'tshe 
tshe tsM, or a more agreeable 'tshit 'tshit a 'tshee, given almost 
in the tones of the common Yellow Bird {Frmgilla trisfis). I 
