342 



5 YS TEMA TIC S YXOPSFS. — PA SSERES — OSCTNES. 



longest; 1st intermediate between 4th and oth. Tail rather L)ng and fan-shaped, with broad 

 flat feathers, widening at ends. Feet slender, with long tarsi indistinctly scutellate externally, 

 and short toes, the middle one without its claw about half as long as tarsus. Coloration inde- 

 terminate. Habits arboricole and Muscicapine. The genus has been made to cover consid- 

 erable variety in form among the numerous species of Fly-catching Warblers of subtropical 

 and tropical America, where it is best represented. The diagnosis, drawn up from S. ruficilla, 

 may require some little modification in order to its applicability even to S. picta. All the 

 e.xtralimital species difler in the shorter and more rounded wing and other characters. S. ruti- 

 cilla is the only species in which the sexes are decidedly dissimilar in color; even in S. picta, 

 the nearest ally, they are substantially alike ; and in all the rest, in which the coloration is 

 very various, there is no obvious difierence between the sexes. Species of Setophaga (includ- 

 ing Myiohorus and Euthhjpis), to the number of 15 or more, are recognized by late authors. 

 S. ruticilla is the only one generally distributed in N. Am. 



Analysis of Species. 



(f Black, white, and orange ; $ brown, white, and yellow ruticilla 



(J ? Black, white, and carmine-red ; no chestnut picta 



cf 9 Black, white, slate-gray, and vermilion red ; cap chestnut miniata 



S. ruticilla. (Lat. ruticilla, red-tail ; riitilus, reddish ; '^ redstart " is corrupted from rotlistert, 

 red-tail. Figs. 200, 201.) American Eedstart. Little Oriole. Fire-tail. " Live 



Coals." Adult $ : Lustrous blue-black ; 

 belly, flanks, and crissum white. Sides of 

 body and lining of wings rich flame-color, 

 which often tinges the breast quite across. 

 Basal portions of all wing-quills, excepting 

 innermost secondaries, the same rich reddish- 

 •c^ ^^^^^^ V orange, brightest on outer webs, where it 



forms a conspicuous exposed spot, paler and 

 more extensive on inner webs. All lateral 

 tail-feathers similarly colored for half or more 

 of their length, orange meeting black 

 abruptly with transverse outline. Bill and 

 _^^^^ feet black. Length ,5.00-.5.50 ; extent 7.50- 

 vH^:: .Ji^J^^^^^ 8.00; wing 2.25-2.50; tail the same; bill 

 0.33; tars^us 0.66. Adult ?: Black of ^ 

 replaced on upper parts with olive, grow- 

 Ifluk /I nUPn^C ^°S more ashy on head, on wings with 

 >- ' /V] ) fuscous, and below with white. Sides rich 



yellow where ^ is orange, this color often 

 Fig 'ioo. — American Redstart. tingeing the breast across. Orange mark- 



ings of wings and tail of ^ replaced by clear yellow. Lores dusky ; eyelids and slight 

 stripe from nostrils to eye whitish. Rather smaller than ^, about equal to the lesser several 

 dimensions given. ^, young: Like the 9; but upper parts more brownish, tail quite black, 

 and yellow of sides brighter. Males changing in spring to their final plumage are irregularly 

 patched with black in the general olivaceous and white. The spring migration includes males 

 in this condition, and others irregularly patched with black, as well as those in ]ierfect dress ; 

 whence it is evident that the Redstart does not acquire his full-dress suit until in his tliird year 

 (see Birds Col. Vail., p. 340). Temperate N. Am., but chiefly Eastern; W. to the Great 

 Basin regularly, casually to Upper and Lower California. Breeds in much of its U. S., and 

 all of its British American range, abundantly from the Northern States northward; winters in 



