SUMMER RED-BIRD. 215 



4. ) differs little in size from the male; but is above of a brownish 

 yellow olive, lightest over the eye; throat, breast, and whole 

 lower part of the body of a dull orange yellow; tips and inte- 

 rior vanes of the wings brown; bill, legs, and eye as in the male. 

 The nest is built in the woods on the horizontal branch of a 

 half-grown tree, often an evergreen, at the height of ten or 

 twelve feet from the ground, composed outwardly of broken 

 stalks of dry flax, and lined with fine grass; the female lays three 

 light blue eggs; the young are produced about the middle of 

 June; and I suspect that the same pair raise no more than one 

 brood in a season, for I have never found their nests but in May 

 or June. Towards the middle of August they take their depar- 

 ture for the south, their residence here being scarcely four 

 months. The young are at first of a green olive above, nearly 

 the same colour as the female below, and do not acquire their 

 full tints till the succeeding spring or summer. 



The change, however, commences the first season before 

 their departure. In the month of August the young males are 

 distinguished from the females by their motleyed garb; the yel- 

 low plumage below, as well as the olive green above, first be- 

 coming stained with spots of a buff colour, which gradually 

 brighten into red; these being irregularly scattered over the 

 whole body, except the wings and tail, particularly the former, 

 which I have often found to contain four or five green quills 

 in the succeeding June. The first of these birds I ever shot was 

 green-winged ; and conceiving it at that time to be a non-descript, 

 I made a drawing of it with care; and on turning to it at this 

 moment I find the whole of the primaries, and two of the se- 

 condaries yellowish green, the rest of the plumage a full red. 

 This was about the middle of May. In the month of August, 

 of the same year, being in the woods with the gun, I perceived 

 a bird of very singular plumage, and having never before met 

 with such an oddity, instantly gave chase to it. It appeared to 

 me, at a small distance, to be sprinkled all over with red, green, 

 and yellow. After a great deal of difficulty, for the bird had ta- 

 ken notice of my eagerness, and had become extremely shy, I 



