AMERICAN REDSTART. 275 
NAMES: Wrison’s Warsier, Wilson’s Black-cap, Black-capped Vellow Warbler, Green Black-capped Fly- 
catching Warbler. 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Muscicapa pusilla Wils. (1811). Wilsonia pusilla Bonap. (1838). SYLVANIA 
PUSILLA Nutt. (1840). Myiodioctes pusillus Sclat. (1858). Sylvia wilsonii Bonap. (1824). Myio- 
dioctes wilsonii Aud. (1839). 
DESCRIPTION: ‘Forehead, line over and around the eye, and under-parts generally, bright yellow. Upper 
parts, olive-green; a square patch on the crown, lustrous black. Sides of body and cheeks, tinged 
with olive. No white on the wings or tail. Female: Similar, the black of the crown, duller, or some- 
times replaced by olive-green. 
“Length, 4.75 inches; wing, 2.25; tail, 2.30 inches.” (Ridgway.) 
The variety, S. pusilla pileolata, is brighter colored. 
AMERICAN REDSTART. 
Setophaga ruticilla SWAINSON. 
PLATE XIV. Fic. 5. 
UR COUNTRY is blessed with a great number of exceedingly beautiful birds. No 
other land, outside of the Ttopics, can boast of so large a variety of brilliant 
songsters. Our large forests, broad prairies, verdant meadows, and shrub-covered 
swamps exhibit in the spring and summer months an exuberance of beautiful flowers, 
but are also pleasantly enlivened by numerous birds of gorgeous colors. Their singing, 
resounding in the deep solitudes as well as in the neighborhood of human abodes, 
compares favorably with the bird-songs of other countries. If the observer rambles 
through the tangled masses of blooming rhododendrons, azaleas, kalmias, andromedas, 
and other beautiful shrubs belonging to the mountainous parts and moist regions of 
the Eastern and South Atlantic States, he encounters everywhere the richly colored 
forms of diverse Wood Warblers. When he rests on an old moss-covered fallen tree in 
the woods of the Northern States amid ferns, wintergreen, partridge-berry, club moss, 
bunch-berry!, trailing arbutus, terrestrial orchids, wood lilies*, and other beautiful 
plants, he hears the indescribable song of the Veery, or in the deep forest retreats the 
enchanting strain of the Hermit Thrush and the charming lay of the Ovenbird. In the 
Gulf region the Mockingbird, the Cardinal, the Nonpareil, and the Blue Grosbeak 
enliven from early morn till late at night the gardens, abounding in camellias, Indian 
azaleas, Cape jasmine’, pittosporum, myrtles, oleanders, crape myrtles, palms, a pro- 
fusion of magnificent tea and Noisette roses, orange trees, many climbers, and a great 
variety of other tropical and semi-tropical plants; while in the less gorgeous and yet 
very attractive parks and gardens of the North resound the chants of the Robin, 
Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Bluebird, Baltimore Oriole, and the melodies of a great 
number of other songsters. The northern meadows and prairies, where the Canada, 
1 Cornus Canadensis, 2 Trillium. % Gardenia florida. 
