SINGING BIRDS. 
1 66 
have likewise heard individuals warble out a variety of sweet 
and tender, trilling, rather loud and shrill notes, so superior to 
the ordinary lay of incubation that the performer would 
scarcely be supposed the same bird. On some occasions the 
male also, when angry or alarmed, utters a loud and snapping 
chirp. 
I'he nest of this elegant Sylvan Flycatcher is very neat and 
substantial, fixed occasionally near the forks of a slender 
hickory or beech sapling, but more generally fastened or agglu- 
tinated to the depending branches or twigs of the former ; 
sometimes securely seated amidst the stout footstalks of the 
waving foliage in the more usual manner of the delicate cradle 
of the Indian Tailor Bird, but in the deep and cool shade of the 
forest, instead of the blooming bower. Both parents, but par- 
ticularly the male, exhibit great concern for the safety of their 
nest, whether containing eggs only or young, and on its being 
approached, the male will flit about within a few feet of the 
invader, regardless of his personal safety, and exhibiting unequi- 
vocal marks of distress. Ihe parents also, in their solicitude 
fear, keep up an incessant tship when their infant brood 
are even distantly approached. 
Nuttall classed the Redstart with the Flycatchers, as some of 
its habits — such as darting from a perch, and capturing insects 
while on the wing — are typical of that family, but the more mod- 
ern systematists class it with the Wood Warblers. It is an abun- 
dant 'summer resident of this eastern province, breeding from 
about the valley of the Potomac to southern Labrador. 
