Rural School Leaflet 



785 



Nest of redstart 



THE REDSTART 



Size : Smaller than a sparrow. 



General color: Black above, including the throat, with six orange 



patches, one in each wing, one on 

 each side of the base of the tail, and 

 one on each side of the breast. Under 



4 m - f \ ,^^ Wj parts white. The female has the black 



■ -S " 'iBbllJi,^MiL^ replaced by green and the orange by 



yellow. 



Distinctive features: The black and 

 orange color, together with the small size, 

 will distinguish it. 



" May 10, 1853. 



" I hear, and have for a week in the 

 woods, the note of one or more small 

 birds somewhat like a yellow-bird's. 

 What is it? Is it the redstart? I now 

 see one of these. The first I have dis- 

 tinguished. And now I feel pretty certain that my black and yellow 



warbler of May ist was this. As I sit, it inquisitively hops nearer and 



nearer. It is one of the 



election-birds of rare 



colors which I can 



remember, mingled dark 



and reddish. This re- 

 minds me that I supposed 



much more variety and 



fertility in nature before 



I had learned the num- " 



bers and names of each 



order. I find that I had 



expected such fertility in 



our Concord woods alone 



as not even the complet- 



est museum of stuffed 



birds of all the forms and 



colors from all parts of the 



world comes up to. The 



neat and active creeper hops about the trunks, its note like a squeaking twig. ' 



Thoreau, Journal 



Redstart 



