REDSTART. 
213 
REDSTART.— MUSCICAPA RUTICILLA. 
Plate XLY. Fig. 2. 
JEdw. 257 Yellow Tail, Arct. Zool. ii. p. 466, No. 301. 
SETOPIIAGA 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 ~thejniddle or 20th of April ;Jand, from 
being heard chanting its few sprightly notes, has been supposed 
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 
