688 BULLETIN 2 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



them. It was a species entirely new to them, and examination of their 

 eastern bird books on returning home failed to place it. The bird 

 was watched intermittently in the same neighborhood over a 5-hour 

 period, and every detail of color and marking was noted. A call 

 to the executive director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society and 

 a further check on the bird by the discoverers and by Herbert Caswell, 

 of the Essex County Ornithological Club, Salem, identified the visitor 

 as a painted redstart. The bird was still present in the same area 

 the following day, when it was observed by Ludlow Griscom, of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, and many 

 parties of bird enthusiasts, including fifty members of the Massa- 

 chusetts Audubon Society on a regularly scheduled field trip. 



"In the Audubon party, a graduate student at Harvard who was 

 equipped with a motion picture camera having a telephoto lens 

 secured color motion pictures of this western redstart as it posed 

 obligingly for minutes between its active feeding and preening 

 periods. The bird was last seen in midafternoon of that day. 



"So far as can be determined by the records, this is the first occur- 

 rence of the painted redstart in the United States outside of its usual 

 range, which includes Arizona, New Mexico, and the Chisos Moun- 

 tains of western Texas, except for somewhat recent reports of the 

 species from southern California. How the bird happened to reach 

 New England must remain a mystery, though other western and 

 southwestern species have been reported in increasing numbers in 

 recent years. The possibility of its being an escaped cage bird seems 

 remote, since birds with food habits of the warblers are seldom, if 

 ever, caged, even by cage-bird enthusiasts living in Mexico and Cuba." 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, western 

 Texas, central Nuevo Leon, and central Tamaulipas ; south through the 

 Mexican highlands to Guatemala, El Salvador, and central Honduras. 



Breeding range. — Only the northern painted redstart {Setophaga 

 jyicta picta) reaches our borders. It breeds north to southeastern 

 Arizona (Santa Catalina Mountains, Seven Mile Canyon, Fort 

 Apache, and Bear Canyon) ; southwestern New Mexico (Alma, 

 Cooney, and Monticello) ; and western Texas (Chisos Mountains). 

 East to western Texas (Chisos Mountains) ; through the Sierra Madre 

 Oriental to Hidalgo (probably La Placenta) ; and probably Vera- 

 cruz. South to probably Veracruz ; and Oaxaca. West to Oaxaca ; 

 Guerrero; and southeastern Arizona (Santa Catalina Mountains). 

 It has been seen or collected during the nesting season in north-central 

 Arizona (Wheeler Canyon, near Flagstaff, and the MogoUon Pla- 



