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THE AMERICAN REDSTART. 



{Setophaga ruticilla.) 



Contemporaneous with the blossoming 

 out of the wild plum, the early Richmond 

 cherry and a rich and diversified profu- 

 sion of woodland flowers, perhaps better 

 exemplified on this occasion by such in- 

 teresting types as the little Claytonia, or 

 spring-beauty, the rue-anemone and the 

 trilliums, both T. erectum and grandi- 

 florum, with perhaps a few belated blos- 

 soms of the hepatica, is the advent of this 

 interesting little bird among us, which 

 here in Northeastern Illinois usually 

 plans its arrival somewhere near the clos- 

 ing days of the first week in May. 



Its generic name, Setophaga, inter- 

 preted into plainer English, means a de- 

 vourer of insects, and, were we to select 

 from among the large and varied assort- 

 ment of birds comprising the bulk of our 

 warbler hosts a form most elegant and 

 expressive of gayety, sprightliness, and, 

 in a measure, frivolity, we could not go 

 far wrong in determining upon this 

 species so easily outclassing all others as 

 the most brilliantly colored member of 

 that numerously large and interesting 

 family, the Mniotiltidae. 



At first a creeper and sharp-eyed in- 

 spector of hidden crannies, we after- 

 wards discern no less in him, and upon 

 the slightest provocation, a tyrant on the 

 wing, thereby proving a general adapta- 

 bility to and utility in his calling at all 

 stages of the game — a constant warfare 

 directed against the insect horde to which 

 he devotes himself most assiduously at 

 all times, and it is really astonishing the 

 amount of the minute forms of insect life 

 these little birds will consume. So then, 

 what at first may appear to us as clever 

 acts of trifling weight will, upon closer in- 

 spection, prove carefully executed move- 

 ments planned and carried out with the 

 greatest precision. 



Among ornithologists we find it classed 

 as an interesting member of the group of 

 fly-catching warblers. Equally sugges- 

 tive to the mind of the writer would be 

 the name of the fan-tailed warbler, de- 

 rived from its well-known habit of carry- 

 ing the tail slightly elevated and partly 

 spread. 



To those who may be on the lookout 

 for just such marked characteristics 

 among our birds this one feature alone 

 will serve as an excellent index in deter- 

 mining its proper identification. 



The plainer and grayer markings of the 

 female and immature birds may dififer 

 very considerably from the more pro- 

 nounced black and white, orange-red and 

 salmon-colored blotches of the adult 

 male, but never so strikingly manifesting 

 themselves in the markings of the tail 

 which in either case may appear to the 

 casual observer as quite similar. 



Yet if we examine them more critically 

 we will discover that they are distinctly 

 different, the salmon-red and black-tipped 

 feathers of the male bird being replaced 

 by a paler reddish-yellow and grayer- 

 tipped arrangement in the case of the 

 female. Young males have the darker 

 markings of the tail feathers very similar 

 to those of the adult birds, which we are 

 told do not take on the complete dress un- 

 til the third year. But the habit of con- 

 stantly flitting the tail in fan-like mo- 

 tions is peculiar alike to all phases of this 

 bird's plumage and above all other charac- 

 ters serves as the greatest aid in nam- 

 ing it. 



The very young, or nestling dress, of 

 which little or nothing seems to have 

 been written, bears a partial resemblance 

 to that of the female bird, excepting that 

 the wings are crossed by two yellowish 

 bands, caused by the lighter tippings of 



