File:Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting (14746868241).jpg

Identifier: usefulbirdstheir00for (find matches)
Title: Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Forbush, Edward Howe, 1858-1929 Massachusetts. State Board of Agriculture
Subjects: Birds Birds
Publisher: (Boston, Mass.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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e foregoing Warblers, it forageshabitually from the ground and Ioav underbrush to the verytops of the tallest trees. It is also a very active and expertflycatcher. Its bill is broadened at the base and its mouth issurrounded with bristles, like those of the Flycatchers andsome other families that take their prey mostly upon thewing. The Kedstart is almost constantly in nervous motion,darting and fluttering from twig to twig in pursuit of itselusive prey. In all its movements its wings are held inreadiness for instant flight, and in its sinuous twistings andturnings, risings and fallings, its colors expand, contract, andglow amid the sylvan shades like a dancing torch in the SONG BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 197 hands of a madman. Chapman tells us that in Cuba mostof our wood Warblers are known simply as mariposas(butterflies), but the Redstarts flaming plumage has wonfor it the name of candelita, the little torch, that flashesin the gloomy depths of the tropical forest. He gives the
Text Appearing After Image:
Pig. 66. —American Redstart. Lower figure, male; upper figure, female.One-half natural size. song as ching, ching, ehee, ser-wee, sicee, sicee-e-e, and thisis a good description of its general character. The songvaries, however, like that of other Warblers, but is usuallymore cheerful than musical. The alarm note of the Redstartis a sharp chirp. The insect food of the Redstart is perhaps more variedthan that of any other common Warbler. Apparentl)^ thereare few forest insects of small size that do not, in some oftheir forms, fall a prey to this bird. Caterpillars that escapesome of the slower birds by spinning down from the branchesand hanging by their silken threads are snapped u)) in mid airby the Redstart. It takes its prey from trunk, limbs, twigs,leaves, and also from the air, so that there is no escape for 198 USEFUL BIRDS. the tree insects which it pursues unless they reach the upperair, where the Redstart seldom goes, except in migration.It has been named the flycatcher of t

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