•THE AMERICAN REDSTART. 211 



web of the outer primary salmon nearly thruout its length; the tail feathers, 

 except the two middle pairs, salmon-colored on both webs for the basal two- 

 thirds; two large patches of reddish salmon on the sides of the breast; the lining 

 of the wings and the sides extensively tinged with the same color, occasionally 

 a few touches across the chest below the black; lower breast, belly, and crissum, 

 white; bill black; feet dark brown; black in variable amounts on sides of breast 

 between the orange red spots ; lower tail-coverts sometimes broadly tipped with 

 blackish. Adult female: Above, brownish ash with an ochraceous or olive 

 tinge on back; salmon parts of male replaced by yellow (Naples yellow), and the 

 reddish salmon of sides by chrome yellow ; remaining underparts dull whitish, 

 sometimes bufty across chest. Iiiiniatitre male: Similar to adult female, but 

 duller the first year ; the second year mottled with black ; does not attain full 

 plumage until third season. Length 5.00-5.75 (127-146.1); av. of five males: 

 wing 2.59 (65.8) ; tail 2.17 (55.1) ; bill .36 (9.1) ; tarsus .70 (18). 



Recognition Marks. — Medium Warbler size ; black with salmon-red and 

 salmon |iatches of male; similar pattern and duller colors of female and young; 

 tail usuallv half open and prominentlv displayed, whether in sport or in ordinary 

 flight. 



Nesting. — Nest, in the fork of a sapling from five to fifteen feet up, of 

 hemp and other vegetable fibers, fine bark, and grasses, lined with fine grasses, 

 plant-down and horse-hair. Eggs, 4 or 5, greenish, bluish, or grayish-white, 

 dotted and spotted, chiefly about larger end, with cinnamon-rufous or olive-brown. 

 Av. size .68X.51 (17.3X 13). Season: June; one brood. 



General Range. — Temperate North Amepca in general, regularly north to 

 Nova Scotia, the Mackenzie River (Fort Simpson), etc., west to southern Alaska. 

 British Columbia, eastern \\'ashington, Utah, etc., casual in eastern Oregon, 

 northern California, and in the southeastern states ; breeding from the middle 

 portion of the United States northward; south in winter thruout West Indies, 

 Mexico and Central America to northern South America. 



Range in Washington. — Rare but regular summer resident in northern 

 portion of State east of Cascades ( Methow Valley, Grand Coulee, etc. ), casual( ?j 

 in the Blue Mountains. 



Authorities. — [J. K. Lord in "Nat. in Vancouver Id. and B. C", 186C, p. 

 162 (Colville Vallev).] Brewer, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club. V., 1880, 50 (Ft. Walla 

 Walla). D'. Ss'. J. 



Specimens. — C. P'. 



THE "start" of Redstart is from the old Anglo-Saxon sfeort, a tail; 

 hence. Redstart means Redtail ; but the name would hardly have been applied 

 to the American bird had it not been for a chance resemblance which it bears 

 to the structurally different Redstart of Europe, Riiticilla phocnkitrus. In 

 our bird the red of the tail is not so noticeable as is the tail itself, which is 

 handled very much as a coquette handles a fan, being opened or shut, or 

 shaken haughtily, to express the owner's varied emotions. 



Tlie Redstart is the presiding genius of woodland and grove. He is a 

 bit of a t\Tant among the birds, and among his own kind is exceedinglv 



