THE RED START. 249 



shorter than the head; hind toe equal to the lateral; coloration embracing more or 

 less of red in northern species. 



This genus differs from Myiodioctes chiefly in the longer, broader tail, and rather 

 shorter tarsi and toes, the hinder especially; the bill is more muscicapine; the 

 culmen nearly straight to the abruptly decurved and much notched tip; the gonys 

 straight; in Myiodioctes the vertical outlines are more convex; the gonys more 

 ascending; the tip gently and but slightly decurved. 



SETOPHAGA RUTICILLA. Swainson. 

 The Red Start. 



Muscicapa ruticilla, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 326. Wil. Am. Orn., I. 

 (1808) 103. Aud. Orn. Biog., I. (1831) 202; V. (1839) 428. 

 Sylvania rutidlla, Nuttall. Man., I. (1832) 291. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Male. Prevailing color black ; a central line on the breast, the abdomen, and 

 under tail coverts, white; some feathers in the latter strongly tinged with dark- 

 brown; bases of all the quills, except the inner and outer, and basal half of all 

 the tail feathers, except the middle one, a patch on each side of the breast, and the 

 axillary region orange-red, of a vermilion shade on the breast. Female with the 

 black replaced by olive-green above, by brownish-white beneath ; the head tinged 

 with ash; a grayish-white lore and ring round the eye; the red of the male 

 replaced by yellow. 



Length, five and twenty-five one-hundredths inches; wing, two and fifty one- 

 hundredths inches; tail, two and forty-five one-hundredths inches. 



This quite common species is a summer resident, and 

 breeds in all the New-England States. It arrives from the 

 South from about the first to the middle of May, accord- 

 ing to latitude, and commences 

 building about the first week 

 in June. The nest is usually 

 placed on a low limb of a 

 small tree, often in a hori- 

 zontal fork, seldom more than 

 ten, feet from the ground. It 

 is constructed of strips of 

 cedar bark, grape-vine bark, 

 grasses, and fine weeds: these 

 materials are adjusted neatly, and agglutinated by the bird's 

 saliva into a compact structure, to the exterior of which 

 are attached, or plastered on by the bird's saliva, fragments 



