192 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Setophaga ruticilla (Linn.). 



American Redstart. 



Setophaga ruticilla Belding, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., VL 1883, 350 (Miraflores;1 La 

 Paz). Bryant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., IL 1889, 313 (Miraflores). 



A female Redstart shot by Mr. Belding at Miraflores on February 24, 1883, 

 is the oaly specimen known to have been taken in Lower California, although 

 Mr. Belding thinks that he saw another at La Paz in March. The species has 

 been found but twice in California, at Hayward's on June 20, 1881, by Mr. 

 W. 0. Emerson, and at Marysville Buttes on June 6, 1884, by Mr. Belding. 

 It is probably merely a chance straggler to the Pacific coast of Upper and 

 Lower California, although in British Columbia it is " found throughout the 

 southern portions of the Province, and through the interior as far as Barker- 

 ville," but nowhere very commonly. ^ 



The wdnter home of the Redstart includes western Mexico and the whole of 

 Central America with northern South America to about the line of the Equator. 



Motacilla ocularis Swinh. 



Swinhoe's "Wagtail. 



Motacilla ocularis Eidgwat, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., IV. 1882, 414 (crit. ; La Paz) ; 

 VI. 1883, 158 footnote (crit.; S. Lower Calif.). Belding, Ibid., V. 1883, 

 535 (La Paz). Beyant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., IL 1889, 313 (La 

 Paz). 



An " adult specimen in winter plumage " of this east Asiatic species was 

 taken by Mr. Belding at La Paz on " January 9, 1882, during a cold gale from 

 the north. It was found on a drift of sea-weed on the beach." This bird was 

 doubtless a mere waif which had either wandered across the Pacific Ocean or 

 had crossed Bering Strait and thence followed the coastline southward. 



M. ocularis has been repeatedly noted at Plover Bay, Siberia, and it probably 

 visits Alaska more or less frequently and regularly, although the only really 

 valid record of its occurrence in any part of North America, other than that 

 furnished by Mr. Belding's specimen, is the mention in the Catalogue of the 

 Birds in the British Museum ^ of a young bird in the collection of that in- 

 stitution which was obtained in " N. W. America" by Captain Kellett and 

 Lieutenant Wood. 



1 Fannin, Check List Birds British Columbia, 1891, 42. 



2 Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., X. 1885, 473. 



