214 REDSTART. 



KEDSTAET. (Muscicapa ruticilla.) 



PLATE XLV.-Fig. 2. 



Edw. 257.— Yellow Tail, Arct.Zool. ii. p. 466, No. 301. 

 SETOPHAGA RUTICILLA. -Swainson. 



By recurring to Vol. I. Plate VI. fig. 6, the male of this 

 species may be seen in his perfect dress. The present figure 

 represents the young bird as he appears for the first two 

 seasons ; the female differs very little from this, chiefly in the 

 green olive being more inclined to ash. 



This is one of our summer birds, and, from the circumstance 

 of being found off Hispaniola in November, is supposed to 

 winter in the islands. They leave Pennsylvania about the 

 20th of September ; are dexterous flycatchers, though ranked 

 by European naturalists among the warblers, having the bill 

 notched and beset with long bristles. 



In its present dress the redstart makes its appearance in 

 Pennsylvania about the middle or 20th of April ; and, from 

 being heard chanting its few sprightly notes, has been sup- 

 posed by some of our own naturalists to be a different species. 

 I have, however, found both parents of the same nest in the 

 same dress nearly ; the female, eggs, and nest, as well as the 

 notes of the male, agreeing exactly with those of the redstart — 

 evidence sufficiently satisfactory to me. 



Head above, dull slate ; throat, pale buff ; sides of the 

 breast and four exterior tail-feathers, fine yellow, tipt with 

 dark brown ; wings and back, greenish olive ; tail-coverts, 

 blackish, tipt with ash ; belly, dull white ; no white or yellow 

 on the wings ; legs, dirty purplish brown ; bill, black. 



The redstart extends very generally over the United States, 

 having myself seen it on the borders of Canada, and also on 

 the Mississippi territory. 



This species has the constant habit of flirting its expanded 

 tail from side to side, as it runs along the branches, with its 

 head levelled almost in a line with its body, occasionally 



