AMERICAN REDSTART. 
283 
the other, when the whole chain of created beings seem united 
to each other by such amazing gradations, that bespeak, not ran- 
dom chance and accidental degeneracy, but the magnificent de- 
sign of an incomprehensibly wise and omnipotent Creator? 
The American Redstart builds frequently in low bushes, in 
the fork of a small sapling, or on the drooping branches of the 
elm, within a few feet of the ground; outwardly it is formed of 
flax well wound together, and moistened with its saliva, inter- 
spersed here and there with pieces of lichen, and lined with a 
very soft downy substance. The female lays five white eggs, 
sprinkled with gray, and specks of blackish. The male is ex- 
tremely anxious for its preservation; and on a person’s approach- 
ing the place will flirt about within a few feet, seeming greatly 
distressed. 
The length of this species is five inches, extent six and a quar- 
ter; the general colour above is black, which covers the whole 
head and neck, and spreads on the upper part of the breast in 
a rounding from; where, as well as on the head and neck, it is 
glossed with steel blue; sides of the breast, below this black, the 
inside of the wings, and upper half of the wing-quills, are of a 
fine aurora colour; but the greater and lesser coverts of the wings 
being black conceal this; and the orange, or aurora colour, ap- 
pears only as a broad transverse band across the wings; from 
thence to the tip they are brownish; the four middle feathers of 
the tail are black, the other eight of the same aurora colour, and 
black towards the tips; belly and vent white, slightly streaked 
with pale orange; legs black; bill of the true Muscicapa form, 
triangular at the base, beset with long bristles, and notched near 
the point; the female has not the rich aurora band across the 
wing; her back and crown is cinereous inclining to olive; the 
white below is not so pure; lateral feathers of the tail and sides 
of the breast greenish yellow; middle tail feathers dusky brown. 
The young males of a year old are almost exactly like the fe- 
male, difiering in these particulars, that they have a yellow 
band across the wings which the female has not, and the back 
is more tinged with brown; the lateral tail feathers are also yel- 
