IS 
COMMON BIRDS : SECOND SERIES. 
bery and trees in the neighborhood of houses, particularly where 
there is water. Here it pursues its insect food, often flying after 
it, in the manner of a flycatcher. Its tail and wings are frequently 
spread, showing their bright markings, and through most of the 
summer the sharp, insect-like song of the male is a constant sound 
in the bird’s haunts. The nest is placed generally in the fork of a 
small tree, or shrub, from five to twenty feet above the ground. I*t 
is a pretty structure, built of strips of bark and soft materials. If 
wool is put out when the bird is building, it is often seized and 
worked into the nest. The four eggs are white, marked with dark 
lilac or brown spots, more thickly at the larger end. The Redstart’s 
song is short, and resembles the syllables wee'-see-wee'-see-wee'. This 
is often varied to one with quite a different effect, something like 
the syllables chee-wee’-o-wee'-o. The Redstart arrives in the first 
days of May, and stays into early October. The females and 
young lack the bright colors of the male; the males, however, 
often appear the second spring in the plain colors of the preceding 
year, so that one frequently hears the song delivered by a bird that 
is apparently a female. The majority of the birds pass into the 
West Indies or Central America in winter. 
Brown Thrasher, or Brown Thrush* 20. 
[HARPORRYNCHUS RUFUS.] 
The Brown Thrasher, or Brown Thrush, shares with its cousin 
the Catbird great skill in concealing its long body and tail in deep 
shrubbery. A glimpse of rich brown as it flits quickly across the 
road, or skulks from one bush to the next, is often all that one sees 
of this fine bird. In spring, however, from the end of April till 
June, it is often possible to observe the bird to great advantage. 
When the male sings, he mounts to the top of some small tree, and, 
sitting there for hours, pours out such a succession of brilliant 
phrases as makes the hillsides ring. The long tail is then depressed 
and the bill thrown upward. The female is meanwhile sitting not 
