AMERICAN REDSTART 99 



May, and September and October. They are to be looked 

 for in the broad valleys of large streams, or near the 

 coast, occurring in almost any bit of woodland or orchard 

 along their paths of migration (see p. 11) ; they now occur 

 in mixed flocks, often associating with Vireos and Kinglets^ 

 between which they are intermediate in size. Their songs 

 are seldom beautiful, and often hard to distinguish ; they 

 are in full song in spring, but few sing in the fall. Several 

 species change their plumage in the fall ; the Black- poll, 

 Myrtle, and Yellow Palm Warblers are the commonest ex- 

 amples of this class. 



The Oven-bird, the Water-thrushes, and the Yellow Palm 

 Warbler obtain their food on the ground ; the Black and 

 White Warbler gleans from the trunks and large limbs ; the 

 Redstart often pursues an insect through the air ; the Yellow- 

 rump is an expert fly-catcher, but in winter lives largely on 

 bayberries. The Parula and the Blue-winged Yellow often 

 cling to the tip of a twig like a Chickadee. Nearly all the 

 others pick their food, chiefly insects, from twigs and leaves. 



American Redstart. Setophaga ruticilla 

 5.41 



Ad. $. — Head, throat, and back lustrous black; sides of 

 breast and flanks reddish-orange ; large bar across wing and tail 

 light salmon • tips of tail-feathers black for a third of their length ; 

 belly white. Ad. 9- — Head gray ; throat grayish-white, orange 

 and salmon replaced by yellow. Young $ resembles the female 

 until the third year. 



Nest, a soft cup, generally in the crotch of a tree or sapling 

 from ten to thirty feet up. Eggs, thickly spotted with dark brown, 

 chiefly around the larger end. 



The Redstart is a common summer resident throughout 

 New York and New England, absent only at high altitudes. 

 It arrives early in May and . remains through September. 

 The male Redstart's bright colors always attract attention 

 and excite admiration, and, unlike its rival, the Blackburnian 



