NORTHERN AMERICAn"rEDSTART 681 



Venezuela — Kancho Grande, near Maracay, Aragua, August 31. 

 Ecuador — Esmeraldas, October 18. 



Egg dates. — Illinois: 32 records, May 25 to July 21; 16 records. 

 May 29 to June 6, indicating the height of the season, 



Michigan: 14 records, May 25 to July 12; 7 records. May 30 to 

 June 8. 



Maine : 20 records, June 5 to 24; 11 records, June 10 to 17. 



Massachusetts: 64 records. May 22 to June 30; 40 records. May 

 30 to June 6. 



Nova Scotia : 13 records, June 3 to 25 ; 7 records, June 15 to 18. 



Pennsylvania : 7 records, June 2 to 16 (Harris). 



SETOPHAGA RUTICILLA TRICOLORA (Muller) 



NORTHERN AMERICAN REDSTART 



CONTKIBUTED BT JAMES LeE PeTERS 



HABITS 



The name Motacilla tricolora was applied by Miiller (1776) to a 

 colored figure of a redstart in Daubenton's Planches Enluminees (1765, 

 pi. 391, fig. 2), Miiller apparently not recognizing that this figure 

 actually represented the bird named Motacilla ruticilla by Linnaeus 

 in 1758. Miiller's name remained in the synonymy of ruticilla until 

 resurrected by Oberholser (1938) who applied it to a western race of 

 redstart which he characterized as differing "from the eastern form in 

 smaller size, smaller orange or yellow wing spot ; in the female also 

 paler, more grayish, less conspicuously olivaceous, upper surface." 



As breeding range he assigned northern British Columbia, Macken- 

 zie, and central Manitoba, south to Oregon, northern Utah, and 

 Wisconsin ; he believed that it migrated through the greater part of 

 the United States and wintered in South America to Ecuador and 

 French Guiana. Wetmore (1949) found that the characters given 

 by Oberholser for distinguishing S. r. tricolora from S. r. ruticilla 

 did not hold, and the range of the former was more extensive than 

 supposed. As a result of his investigations Wetmore found that the 

 size of the wing patch was variable and hence not a subspecific char- 

 acter ; in fact he could find no constant differences between the adult 

 males of the two races, but found that females and immature males of 

 tricolora differ from ruticilla in being "somewhat darker above, washed 

 with duller green in immature dress." 



The breeding range for tricolora given by Wetmore extends from 

 Yukon, Mackenzie, Saskatchewan, central Ontario, and Quebec to 

 Newfoundland, south to west-central Washington, northern Utah, 

 Montana, northern Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. 



Both forms appear to migrate and winter together. 



