130 AMERICAN REBSTAET. 



AMERICAN REDSTART. 



Setopliajsra niticilla. 



Frontispiece, adult male. Plate XII, Fig. 5, young male : Fig. 6, adult 

 female. 



Size, 5.25 to 5.65. Black, with six prominent spots of 

 reddish orange. Active, constantly spreading its fan-like tail. 

 A common summer resident in woodlands and groves. 



Male. Black above and on throat and breast ; this color extending 

 down on the sides to a greater or less extent ; remaining under parts, 

 white. Reddish orange patches on sides, wings, and tail. 



Female. Grayish olive above, white beneath, with the orange patch- 

 es of the male replaced by yellow. 



Young Male. Similar to the adult female, but the yellow patches 

 are larger. This is the plumage of the first year: the second year black 

 patches begin to appear on the throat and breast: during the third year 

 more black appears and some tingi)ig of reddish on the yellow patches, 

 especially on the tail, where sometimes one side may be reddish and the 

 other yellow. 



Nestlings. Similar to the young but grayer and with no yellow on 

 the sides, but the yellow patches are present on the tail and wings. 



Dimensions. Length, 5.38; stretch, 7.80, wing, 2.50: tail, 2.18: 

 bill, .36 ; tarsus, .65. 



Comparisons. Readily known by the six conspicuous orange or yel- 

 low patches, active habits, and fan-like expansion of the tail. 



Nests and Eggs. Nests placed in trt^es, composed of hempen fiber 

 of plants, fibrous bark of trees, pine needles, dead leaves, fine roots, and 

 dry grasses, all woven together into a neat, compact structure, and lined 

 with horse-hair, feathers, and fine grasses. Eggs, usually four, rarely five, 

 grayish or greenish white, spotted and blotched irregularly with reddish 

 brown, umber, and lilac. Dimensions, .50 by .69. 



General Habits. There are few among our Warblers 

 that are more active than the richly-colored Redstart, for it is 

 constantly flitting from bough to bough or darting into air in 

 pursuit of its moving prey. This activity, combined with its 

 habits of spreading its tail, and half opening its wings, renders 

 it very conspicuous, and consequently it is one of the first of 



