SETOPHAGA RUTICILLA, REDSTART. 81 



three eggs, white, spotted with reddish-brown and lavender, chiefly at the 

 larger end, where many of the spots are confluent, but also sparingly 

 sprinkled over the whole surface. Size 0.68 by 0.52. The nest is placed 

 on the ground. 



SETOPHAGA RUTICILLA, (Linn.) Sw. 



Redstart. 



Muscicapa ruiicilla, Linn., Syst. Nat. i", 1766, 326.— Gm., Syst. Nat. i, 1788, 935.— Vieill., 

 Ois. Am. Sept. ii, 1807, 66, pi. 35, 36.— Wils,, Am. Orn. i, 1808, 103, pi. 6, fig. 6.— 

 AuD., Orn. Biog. i, 1831, 202; v, 1839, 428; pi. 40.— Aud., B. Am. i, 240, pi. 68. 



Setopharja ruticilla, Sw., Zool. Journ. iii, 1827, 358.— Sw. & Rich., F. B. A. ii, 1831,223.— 

 Bd., B. N. a. 18.58, 297 ; Rev. 1865, 256.— Hayd., Rep. 1862, 161.— Coop., Am. 

 Nat. Aug. 1869, 33 (Fort Union, breeding ; obtained eight nests). — Lawr., Ann. 

 Lye. viii, 1866, 174 ; ix, 1868, 96 (Costa Rica).— Sal v., P. Z. S. 1867, 136 (Ve- 

 ragua) ; 1868, 166 (Venezuela).- Scl. & Salv., P. Z. S. 1870, 780 (Meridu).— 

 Allen, Bnll. M. C. Z. iii, 1872, 175 (Kansas ; mountains of Colorado, up to 

 about 8,000 feet ; Ogden, Utah).— Stev., U. S. Geol. Surv. Ter. 1670, 4U3.— 

 CouES, Key, 1872, 110 ; aud of all late writers. 



'Sylvania ruticiUa, Nutt., Man. i, 1832, 291. 



MotacUla flavicauda, Gm., Syst. Nat. i, 1788, 997 ( 5 ). 



Eab. — Chieily Eastern North America. North to Fort Simpson. West to Utah. 

 South through Mexico and Central America to Ecuador. West Indies. 



Lieutenant Warren^s Expedition. — 4691, "Nebraska;" 4687-90, 8843, Upper Missouri 

 River; 4688, Big Sioux River; 4689, mouth of Platte River; 5271, Medicine Creek. 

 Later Expeditions. — 60424-5, La Bontc Creek. 



According to several observers, the Redstart is one of the commonest 

 birds along the Missouri River bottoms, breeding abundantly. Dr. 

 Cooper obtained numerous nests at various points between Fort Union 

 aud Milk River, and traced the species westward to the Cojur d'Alene 

 Mountains. Mr. Allen says it occurs with considerable frequency as a 

 summer resident in the foot-hills west of Denver, where it evidently 

 breeds, and is doubtlessly sparingly represented wherever there are 

 woodlands or thickets, thence eastward to the Atlantic coast, as well as 

 westward throughout the lower mountain v^alleys, as he found it com- 

 mon about Ogden, L^tah, in autumn. In the mountains he did not observe 

 it above 8,000 feet. 



The Redstart builds an elegant little nest in the fork of a tree, of va- 

 rious soft downy substances matted together, and usually also with 

 fibrous strips. Those built chiefly of down are exquisitely soft and 

 neatly finished with a flrni, smooth, circular brim, quite narrow. The 

 interior is lined with a considerable (piantity of very fine rootlets, or 

 horse-hair, or both, for the juost part circularly arranged. The whole 

 nest is only about two and one-half inches across outside, aud the same 

 in external depth ; the cavity is usually rather deeper than broad. A 

 nest taken at Racine, Wisconsin, by Dr. Iloy, is curiously fixed entirely 

 to one side of an upright fork, setting away from the support altogether, 

 excepting on a small part of its circumference, which is continued ilown- 

 wanl into the crotch, and to which the rest of the ne.st is attached more 

 intimately than it is to the fork itself. The egg.s, in the examples before 

 me, are mostly four in number; they are white, quite thickly sprinkled 

 all over, but especially spotted at or around the large end, with usual 

 shades of brown and lilac. Dilferent specimens nu'asure from O.(Il) by 

 0.49 to 0.70 by O.ill. The bird breeds in Jvausas, aud also very abundantly 

 along the Red River, in June. 

 6 



