AMERICAN REDSTART. 
293 
am arrow in a new direction, after the fresh game he has 
discovered in the distance, and for which he appeared to 
be reconnoitring. At first the males are seen engag- 
ed 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 
compass, are highly musical, and at times sweet and 
agreeably varied like that 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 
3 tsh tshtshee , tsh&, 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 
tsh6 tshe , or a more agreeable ’tshit ’ tshit a ’ tshee , given al- 
most in the tones of the Common Yellow-bird (Fringilla 
tristis). I 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. 
The nest of this elegant Sylvan Flycatcher is very 
neat and substantial ; fixed occasionally near the forks of a 
slender hickory or beach sappling, but more generally 
fastened or agglutinated 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- 
* See the vignette at the close of this article, which represents one of the nests 
here described. 
25 * 
