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Range (Eastern North America breeds) (XXXXX)
Eastern North America; breeds from northern Michigan and Massachusetts to Manitoba and Labrador, and southward in Alleghanies to North Carolina; winters in tropics.
Washington, very common T. V., May 5 to 27; Aug. 7 to Sept. 25. Sing Sing, common T. V., May 6 to June 2; Aug. 10 to Oct. 11. Cambridge, common T. V., May 18 to 28; Sept. 1 to 20. Nest, of strips of bark, bits of dead wood, and moss wrapped in leaves, and lined with fine rootlets, in mossy banks or under roots. Eggs, four to five, white, speckled and spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with rufous or rufousbrown, 66 × 51. Although when associated with other migrating Warblers this bird may be found in woodland of varied character, it prefers low, wet woods, in which, like Wilson's Black-cap, it frequents the lower growth. Like that bird also it is an expert flycatcher.
Its song is sweet, loud, and spirited. Thompson writes it "rup-itche, rup-it-che, rup-it-chitt-it lit." 687. Setophaga ruticilla (Linn.). AMERICAN REDSTART. (See Fig. 53, c.) Ad. 8. - Upper parts, throat, and breast shining black; basal half of the wing-feathers salmon, end half and wing-coverts black; basal two thirds of all but the middle tail-feathers salmon, end third and middle feathers black; sides of the breast and flanks deep reddish salmon; belly white, tinged with salmon; bill with prominent bristles at its base. Ad. 2.--Salmon of the & replaced by dull yellow; head grayish; back ashy, with a greenish tinge; under parts, except where marked with yellow, white. Im. - Resemble the; the acquires his full plumage the third year, and the second year has the plumage mottled with black. L., 5.41; W., 2.57; T., 2.27; B. from N., .27.
Range.-North America; breeds from Kansas and North Carolina north to Labrador and Fort Simpson; winters in the tropics. Washington, very abundant T. V., Apl. 18 to May 28; Aug. 19 to Sept. 25; a few breed. Sing Sing, common S. R., May 1 to Oct. 3. Cambridge, very common S. R., May 5 to Sept. 20.
Nest, of fine strips of bark, leaf stalks, and plant down, firmly interwoven, lined with tendrils and fine rootlets, in the crotch of a sapling, five to twenty feet up. Eggs, four to five, grayish white or bluish white, spotted and blotched, chiefly at the larger end, with cinnamon- or olive-brown, 68 x 50. If this active, brilliantly colored inhabitant of woodlands was as rare as he is beautiful, we would consider a meeting with him an event WAGTAILS AND PIPITS. demanding at least a page in our journals. In Cuba most of our Wood Warblers are known simply as "Mariposas"-butterflies; but the Redstart's bright plumage has won for him the name "Candelita" -the little torch that flashes in the gloomy depths of tropical forests. Ching, ching, chee; ser-wee, swee, swee-e-e he sings, and with wings and tail outspread whirls about, dancing from limb to limb, darting upward, floating downward, blown hither and thither like a leaf in the breeze. But the gnats dancing in the sunlight and the caterpillars feeding in the shade of the leaves know to their sorrow that his erratic course is guided by a purpose. *