sylviadjE. 223 



[53.] I. Setophaga ruticilla. (Swainson.) Yellow-tailed Gnat-catcher. 



Sub-family, Parianae, Swains. Genus, Setophaga, Swains. Zool. Journ., No. 9, Dec, 1827, P- 3C0. 

 Small American Redstart (Ruticilla minor Americana). Edwards, pi. 80, arm. 1747- Male. 

 Yellow-tailed Fly-catcher (Muscicapa cauda lutea). Idem, pi. 257, ami. 1757- Female. 

 Muscicapa ruticilla. Linn. 



Black-headed Warbler. Lath. Syn., iv., p. 427, sp. 18. Female. 

 Yellow-tail Warbler. Pens. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 406, No. 301. Female. 

 Black-headed Warbler. Idem, ii., p. 398, No. 282. Male. 



American Redstart (Muscicapa ruticilla). Wilson, i., p. 103, pi. 6, f. 6. Male. Idem, v., p. 119, 

 pi. 45, f. 2. Young. 



This beautiful little bird, the typical species of Mr. Swainson's genus Setophaga, 

 is said to winter in the West Indies,, and is found generally throughout North 

 America in summer up to the fifty-eighth parallel of latitude. Late in April it 

 appears in Pennsylvania, and on the Missouri, according to Mr. Say, by the 

 28th of that month. May is far advanced before it arrives on the banks of the 

 Saskatchewan ; and it quits both the fur-countries and the United States in the 

 beginning of September. It frequents moist, shady places in the Hudson's Bay 

 lands, flitting about among the moss-grown and twisted stems of the tall willows 

 which skirt every marsh in those quarters. Like the Pine-creeper, as described 

 by Wilson, it shuns the observation of the passers-by, by running round to the 

 opposite side of a branch ; but the red of the inside of the wings readily betrays 

 it as it flies through these gloomy shades in pursuit of musquitoes and other 

 winged insects. It has a single acute, but very agreeable note. — R. 



The foregoing particulars on the economy of Wilson's American Redstart, 

 joined to the interesting memoirs given in the American Ornithology, illustrates 

 most fully and most completely the station which this elegant bird holds in the 

 scale of created beings. In the first place, it is an ambulatory Fly-catcher, that 

 is, pursuing insects from one station to another ; and is therefore essentially dis- 

 tinct from the true Fly-catchers, which sit still and watch for their prey. " It is 

 almost perpetually in motion, and will pursue a party of retreating flies from the 

 tops of the tallest trees to the ground." — Am. Orn., p. 103. Secondly, although 

 a true Setophaga, it should nevertheless bear a very close resemblance to the 

 Sylvicolw, as united to them by close affinity ; and we consequently find Wilson 

 observing, that (t Several of our most respectable ornithologists have classed 

 this bird with the Warblers." Thirdly, it sometimes " traverses the branches of 

 trees lengthways" and at others hides itself, as Dr. Richardson observes, like 

 a creeper: both of which habits should belong to a group which passes into 

 Accentor, by means of Seiurus aurocapillus, since the latter bird has the first of 



