THE WARBLERS 



GROUP FOUR— THE BLACK AND ORANGE 



WARBLERS 



1. THE REDSTART 



Length: About S^/o inches. 



Male: Body glossy black, with a white belly, orange patches 

 at the sides of the body and under the wings; an or- 

 ange band across the wings; middle tail-feathers 

 black; other tail-feathers broadly tipped with black 

 but largely orange, conspicuous in flight; bill with 

 bristles. 



Female: Gray and olive-green above, white underneath; yellow 

 instead of orange on sides, wings, tail, and under tail. 



Young Male: Like female till end of first breeding season. 



Nest: A beautiful structure made of strips of bark, root-fibers, 

 and plant-down, and placed in the fork of a tree. 

 If built in a birch sapling and decorated with bits of 

 birch bark, it seems a part of the tree. 



Song": A cheerful trill, rather weak and unmusical. 



Range: North America. Breeds from Oklahoma, Arkansas, 

 and North Carolina northward; winters in the West 

 Indies, central Mexico, and northern South America. 



THE Redstart is one of the most beautiful and con- 

 spicuous of the warblers. Its fan-shaped, flame- 

 colored tail tipped with black is its most distinctive mark. 

 It is in almost constant motion, fluttering incessantly in 

 pursuit of its insect prey. Mr. Forbush writes, "In all 

 its movements its wings are held in readiness for instant 

 flight, and in its sinuous twistings and turnings, risings 

 and fallings, its colors expand, contract, and glow amid 

 the sylvan shades like a dancing torch." ^ 



1 "Useful Birds and Their Protection," by E. H. Forbush, pages 196 and 

 198. 



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