288 AMERICAN REDSTART 



Young (^, Fall. — Generally resembles adult $ in Spring but the back is 

 often more olive or more ruddy brown, and the patches at the side of the 

 breast average deeper in tone. In some specimens the back is suffused with 

 reddish and the breast patches are orange. I have seen two specimens (Bishop 

 Coll.) with a few black patches showing that in some instances the bird begins 

 to acquire adult plumage, the first Fall. 



Young ($, Spring. — Similar to young (^ in Fall but with a few black feathers 

 on the breast and generally with additional black feathers on the chin, lores, 

 cheeks, or crown. There is no regularity as regards the part of the breast 

 or head in which these black feathers appear, but I have yet to see a Spring 

 c? in which they were entirely wanting. There appears to be no transition 

 plumage between the one just described and the mature orange and black 

 dress which, as molting specimens in Dr. Dwight's collection seem to prove, 

 is acquired after the first breeding season or at the beginning of the second 

 year of the bird's life. 



Adult 9, Spring. — Crown and cheeks gray, back olive-green with a grayish 

 tinge, upper tail-coverts blackish ; basal two-thirds of three outer tail-feathers 

 yellow their tips blackish, two-thirds of outer vane and sometimes part of 

 inner vane of next two yellow, their end and inner pair of feathers blackish; 

 wings brown edged with greenish, orange wing-band of adult c? replaced by 

 yellow and, externally, appearing chiefly on the basal half of outer web of 

 secondaries; underparts grayish white, the sides of the breast with yellow 

 patches, sides of body more or less washed with same color. 



Adult $, Fall. — Similar to adult $ in Spring but back more olive, throat 

 and breast washed with buffy. 



Young ?, Fall. — Similar to adult ? in Fall but with less yellow in wing, 

 in the closed wing this color being often entirely concealed. 



Young $, Spring. — Similar to young ? in Fall but throat whiter. 



Nestling. — Above brownish gray, crown paler, throat and breast grayer, 

 belly whiter; wing-coverts brownish tipped with whitish. 



General Distribution. — Eastern North America; north to New- 

 foundland, Labrador and Alaska ; west to the Rocky Mountains. 



Summer Range. — From its far northern home, almost to the Hmit 

 of tree growth, the Redstart breeds south commonly to Maryland and 

 Iowa, and not rarely to North Carolina, Arkansas, and Kansas. Excep- 

 tional breeding records, south of this normal breeding range are at 

 Greensboro, Ala., Hopefield, and Jackson, Miss., and Fort Union, New 

 Mexico. The regular western range includes Colorado, Utah, Idaho, 

 eastern Washington and British Columbia. The species has occurred 

 casually in Oregon (John Day River, July i, 1889), California (Hay- 

 wards, June 20, 1881 ; Marysville Buttes, June 6, 1884), Arizona (Tuc- 

 son, spring; Catalina Mountains, August 12, 1884), Lower California 

 (Miraflores, La Paz). 



Winter Range. — Mexico and the West Indies to Ecuador and 

 British Guiana. 



