470 WAGTAILS AND PIPITS 



Its song is sweet, loud, and spirited. Fuertes writes "it suggests to 

 me the unfinished song of a Goldfinch more than that of a Warbler. 

 It is very broken and energetic and also possesses a large quality" 

 (" Warblers of North America"). 



687. Setophaga ruticilla (Linn.). REDSTART. (Fig. 70c.) Ad. <?. 

 Upperparts, throat, and breast shining black; basal half of the wing-feath- 

 ers salmon, end half and wing-coverts black; basal two-thirds of all but the 

 middle tail-feathers salmon, end third and middle feathers black; sides of 

 the breast and flanks deep reddish salmon; belly white, tinged with salmon; 

 bill with prominent bristles at its base. Ad. 9. Salmon of the & replaced 

 by dull yellow; head grayish; back ashy, with a greenish tinge; underparts, 

 except where marked with yellow, white. Im. Resemble the 9 ; the d" 

 acquires his full plumage at the end of his first breeding season during 

 which he resembles the 9, but is more or less mottled with black. L., 5'41; 

 W., 2'57; T., 2'27; B. from N., '27 



Range. N. A. Breeds in Canadian, Transition, and Upper Austral 

 zones from cen. B. C. to N. F., s. to Wash., n. Utah, Colo., cen. Okla., Ark., 

 and N. C.; rarely breeds in the se. U. S. s. of lat. 35; casual in migration 

 in Ore., Calif., L. Calif., Ariz., and n. Ungava; winters in the West Indies 

 and from cen. Mex. to Ecuador and B. Guiana. (See Fig. 8.) 



Washington, very abundant T. V., Apl. 15-May; Aug. 19-Sept. 30; 

 a few breed. Ossining, common S. R., May 1-Oct. 3. Cambridge, abundant 

 S. R., May 5-Sept. 20. N. Ohio, common S. R., Apl. 27-Sept. 20. Glen 

 Ellyn, not common S. R., common T. V., May 3-Oct. 5. SE. Minn., com- 

 mon S. R., May 2-Sept. 22. 



Nest, of fine strips of bark, leaf stalks, and plant-down, firmly inter- 

 woven, lined with tendrils and fine rootlets, in the crotch of a sapling, 5-20 

 feet up. Eggs, 4-5, grayish white or bluish white, spotted and blotched, 

 chiefly at the larger end, with cinnamon- or olive-brown, "68 x '50. Date, 

 Raleigh, N. C., May 12; Waynesburg, Pa., May 19; New Haven, Conn., 

 May 20; Cambridge, June 2. 



If this active, brilliantly colored inhabitant of woodlands were as 

 rare as he is beautiful, we would consider a meeting with him an event 

 demanding at least a page in our journals. In Cuba most of our Wood 

 Warblers are known simply as 'Mariposas' butterflies; but the 

 Redstart's bright plumage has won for him the name ' Candelita' 

 the little torch that flashes in the gloomy depths of tropical forests. 



Ching, ching, chee; ser-wee, swee, swe-e-e he sings, and with wings 

 and tail outspread whirls about, dancing from limb to limb, darting 

 upward, floating downward, blown hither and thither like a leaf in the 

 breeze. But the gnats dancing in the sunlight and the caterpillars 

 feeding in the shade of the leaves know to their sorrow that his erratic 

 course is guided by a purpose. 



59. FAMILY MOTACILLID^B. WAGTAILS AND PIPITS. (Fig. 71.) 



Of the one hundred species included in this family only ten are 

 American, the remaining ninety being distributed throughout the Old 

 World. Of Wagtails, a single species (Budytes flavus alascensis) reaches 

 western Alaska, while our nine species of Pipits are scattered from the 

 Arctic zone to Patagonia, only two being known from north of the Rio 

 Grande. 



