724 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



SETOPHAGA RUTICILLA (Linnaeus). 

 AMERICAN REDSTART. 



Adult male. — Head, neck, chest, and upper parts uniform black, 

 with a more or less decided bluish gloss, except on remiges, and rec- 

 trices; basal portion of remig-es (except two innermost tertials) and 

 more than basal half of rectrices, except two (sometimes only one) 

 middle pairs, pale orange, saturn red, or salmon-pink, this occup}'- 

 ing the full width of both webs;' a large patch on each side of chest 

 and breast, together with axillars and under wing-coverts, bright saturn 

 red;' rest of under parts white, usually with more or less of black be- 

 tween the orange-red lateral patches and the white in middle of breast;'' 

 longer under tail-coverts sometimes partly black or dusky; bill wholly 

 black in spring and summer, more brownish, with mandil)le paler 

 brown, in fall and winter;* iris brown; legs and feet dark In-own or 

 blackish; length (skins), 117-127 (121.3); wing, 61-67 (63.5); tail, 

 52-58(55.1); exposed culmen, 7-9 (8.5); tarsus, 17-19 (17.9); middle 

 toe, 9-11 (10.1).^ 



Adult female. — Very different from the adult male. Pileum and 

 hindneck plain mouse gray; back, scapulars, and rump plain light 

 olive oj- grayish olive-green; upper tail-coverts, middle rectrices, and 

 terminal portion or other, rectrices dusky; wings dusky (not so dark 

 as dusky portion of tail) with light olive edgings; basal portion of 

 remiges and rectrices (except one or two middle pairs of the latter and 

 two innermost secondaries) light yellow, that on the remiges more 

 restricted than the orange-red in the male, often not showing at all on 

 primaries; sides of head paler gra}' than pileum, especiall}' the lores 

 and superciliary region; malar region, chin, throat, and chest dull 

 grayish white; rest of under parts more decidedly white, with a con- 



^ Sometimes the outer web of outermost primary and more rarely that of the one 

 next to it (eighth) has none of this color at the base; usually it is edged with it. 

 The extent of the pale orange or saturn red on the remiges varies considerably, but 

 nearly always it occupies less than half the exposed portion of the secondaries, except 

 sometimes on the innermost ones, and on the primaries never involves more than the 

 basal third, usually much less. The rectrices next to the middle pair usually have 

 the ))asal half of outer web salmon-pink, the inner web entirely or mostly black. 



^ There is little variation in this color, which is practically the same in at least 90 

 per cent of the specimens examined; very rarely, however, the orange-red is replaced, 

 not only on sides of breast but also on the wings and tad, by yellow. 



'Often there is a "solid" patch of black between the lateral orange-red and 

 median white, sometimes extending backward as far as the flanks; more rarely the 

 black ends abruptly on the chest, with a rounded or convex posterior outline. Fre- 

 quently the white portions are tinged with orange-red, especially on sides and flanks; 

 very rarely the white is entirely replaced by orange-red. (See Mearns, Bull. Nutt. 

 Orn. Club, ii, 1877, 70.) 



* There is no difference in color of plumage according to season, except that fall 

 and winter specimens, being in fresher feather, are rather more richly colored. 



^ Fifteen specimens. 



