388 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



and June. In Ohio I have invariably found it in the woods which are 

 the favorite haunts of the Oven-bird, Senirus aurocapillus. About 

 four miles east of Columbus, in a thick damp woods of about fifteen 

 acres in extent, I counted no less than twenty-seven nests in a single 

 day. In many sections the birds are really more common than the 

 Yellow Warbler, D. csstiva. The nest built by the Redstart is a beau- 

 tiful, compact, cup-shaped structure, made of shreds of plants and 

 hempen fibres, held together with spiders' webs ; the lining is of fine 

 grasses and hair. It is either saddled on a branch or placed in 

 the forked twigs of a small tree or sapling, usually from six to twelve 

 feet above the ground, but often as high as thirty. A curious habit of 

 the Redstart is that of opening and closing its fan-like tail while flitting 

 about in the trees and bushes. 



The eggs are four, rarely five, in number and they are subject to 

 a remarkable variation in size and color. In a large series the ground 

 color will vary from white to greenish-white or grayish-white. The 

 markings are specks or spots of cinnamon, brown and lilac-gray, 

 chiefly round the larger end. Ten specimens selected on account of 

 their sizes give the following measurements : .57X.47, .60X.45, .61 x 

 .47, .62X.48, .64X.52, .66X.51, .67X.48, .68X.49, .69X.48, .70X.50. 



688. Setophaga picta Swains. [129.] 



Painted Redstart. 



Hab. Southern Arizona and New Mexico, south to highlands of Mexico. 



This is the Painted Flycatching Warbler of so striking colors. It 

 is found in Southern Arizona and New Mexico southward into Mexico. 

 It frequents shrubbery near water and in some localities is abundant. 

 Mr. Walter B. Bryant gives the first description of the nest and eggs 

 of this species from specimens obtained by Mr. Herbert Brown in 

 the Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona, June 6, 1880.* 



The nests and eggs do not resemble those of .S. ruticilla. The 

 nesting-site is within cavities in banks or under projecting stones. A 

 nest was taken by Mr. Brown from a hole in a road bank in the moun- 

 tains; this Mr. Bryant describes as being loosely constructed of dry 

 gray grasses and fine shreds of vegetable bark, and lined with black and 

 white horse hairs. It contained four incubated eggs of a light pearl- 

 white thickly dotted with brownish-red and traces of lilac on the larger 

 end. They measure .57 x .48, .60 x .50, .64 x .50, .58 x .49. Another set 

 of four was taken from a similar nest beneath a small bush. The eggs 

 are somewhat larger and spotted over the entire egg, the markings 

 clustering about the larger end. The sizes of three of them are .69 x 



* Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, VI, pp. 176-177. 



