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 
greatest 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 moment. 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, 
appear mottled with pure black and vermilion on their sides. Notwith- 
standing 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 Missis- 
sippi 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 43 twelfths by 3f twelfths. Intestine 3 inches 10 twelfths long, 
its greatest width barely 1 twelfth ; coeca little more than 3 twelfth long, and 
73 twelfths distant from the extremity. Trachea li inches long, of 55 rings, 
