THE AMERICAN REDSTART. 211 
web of the outer primary salmon nearly thruout its length; the tail feathers, 
except the two middle pairs, salmon-colored on both webs for the basal two- 
thirds; two large patches of reddish salmon on the sides of the breast; the lining 
of the wings and the sides extensively tinged with the same color, occasionally 
a few touches across the chest below the black; lower breast, belly, and crissum, 
white; bill black; feet dark brown; black in variable amounts on sides of breast 
between the orange red spots; lower tail-coverts sometimes broadly tipped with 
blackish. Adult female: Above, brownish ash with an ochraceous or olive 
tinge on back; salmon parts of male replaced by yellow (Naples yellow), and the 
reddish salmon of sides by chrome yellow; remaining underparts dull whitish, 
sometimes buffy across chest. Jmmature male: Similar to adult female, but 
duller the first year; the second year mottled with black; does not attain full 
plumage until third season. Length 5.00-5.75 (127-146.1); av. of five males: 
wing 2.59 (65.8) ; tail 2.17 (55.1); bill .36 (9.1) ; tarsus .70 (18). 
Recognition Marks.—Medium Warbler size; black with salmon-red and 
salmon patches of male; similar pattern and duller colors of female and young; 
tail usually half open and prominently displayed, whether in sport or in ordinary 
flight. 
Nesting.—Nest, in the fork of a sapling from five to fifteen feet up, of 
hemp and other vegetable fibers, fine bark, and grasses, lined with fine grasses, 
plant-down and horse-hair. Eggs, 4 or 5, greenish, bluish, or grayish-white, 
dotted and spotted, chiefly about larger end, with cinnamon-rufous or olive-brown. 
Av. size .68x .51 (17.313). Season: June; one brood. 
General Range.—Temperate North America in general, regularly north to 
Nova Scotia, the Mackenzie River (Fort Simpson), etc., west to southern Alaska, 
British Columbia, eastern Washington, Utah, etc., casual in eastern Oregon, 
northern California, and in the southeastern states; breeding from the middle 
portion of the United States northward; south in winter thruout West Indies, 
Mexico and Central America to northern South America. 
Range in Washington.—Rare but regular summer resident in northern 
portion of State east of Cascades (Methow Valley, Grand Coulee, etc. ), casual( ?) 
in the Blue Mountains. 
Authorities.—| J. K. Lord in “Nat. in Vancouver Id. and B. C.”’, 1866, p. 
162 (Colville Valley).] Brewer, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club. V., 1880, 50 (Ft. Walla 
WWrallay\e Dt Sst. I: 
Specimens.—C. P?. 
THE “start” of Redstart is from the old Anglo-Saxon steort, a tail; 
hence, Redstart means Redtail; but the name would hardly have been applied 
to the American bird had it not been for a chance resemblance which it bears 
to the structurally different Redstart of Europe, Ruticilla phoenicurus. In 
our bird the red of the tail is not so noticeable as is the tail itself, which is 
handled very much as a coquette handles a fan, being opened or shut, or 
shaken haughtily, to express the owner’s varied emotions. 
The Redstart is the presiding genius of woodland and grove. He is a 
bit of a tyrant among the birds, and among his own kind is exceedingly 
