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INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 
continent, being found in Canada, in the remote interior 
near Red river in the latitude of 49°, and throughout 
Louisiana and Arkansa, probably asjfar as Mexico ; in all 
of which vast countries it familiarly breeds and resides 
during the mild season, withdrawing early in September 
to tropical America, where, in the perpetual spring and 
summer of the larger West India islands, the species 
again finds means of support. At length, instigated by- 
more powerful feelings than those of ordinary want, the 
male, now 7 clad in his beautiful nuptial livery, and ac- 
companied by his mate, seeks anew the friendly but far 
distant natal regions of his race. In no haste, the play- 
ful 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 pensioner upon the bounty of man. 
Though sometimes seen, on his first arrival, in the dark- 
est part of the orchard or garden, or by the meander- 
ing 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 approach of his insect prey, but carrying the 
w r ar 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 his bill declares distinctly both his object and success. 
Then alighting on some adjoining branch, intently watch- 
ing, 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 
