Nevertheless it is impossible to listen for any length of time to the redstart, and to many redstarts, without feeling, almost with irritation, that its strain is only the prelude of a song-a promise never performed; that once upon a time in the remote past it was a sweet, copious, and varied singer, and that only a fragment of its melody now remains.
"Afoot in England"
W.H. Hudson
Wren notes fell like silvery drops of water through the sunlit air, and redstarts made the place ring with their rich clear notes.
"See America First"
Orville O. Hiestand
With the exception of the wood wagtails, I should say that nearly all the small birds in the immediate vicinity must have turned out: black-and-white creepers, redstarts, chestnut-sided warblers, black-throated greens, a blue golden-wing, red-eyed vireos, and a third solitary vireo.
"A Rambler's lease"
Bradford Torrey