Page:Birdcraft-1897.djvu/180

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SONG-BIRDS.
Warblers
Eggs: 4-5, white, with irregular small blotches of reddish brown.
Range: Eastern North America, westward to the Plains, and north to the Arctic regions; south, in winter, to Central America and northern South America. The Canadian Warbler may be identified by the beautifully wrought jet necklace which he wears across his yellow throat, the black crown streaks, and the peculiar bluish ash back. He has charming manners, and a dainty way of giving a little old-fashioned bob courtesy whenever he sees a passer-by. His song is quite pretty, but not by any means a certain mark of identification; in fact, I do not think that there are more than eight or ten of the whole Warbler tribe whose notes will serve as a guide to any one but an ornithologist well up in field practice.

American Redstart: Setophaga ruticilla.

Plate 20.

Length: 5-5.50 inches.
Male: Above brilliant blue-black, white belly, sides of body and wing linings salmon-orange, which colour sometimes flushes the breast. Some orange on base of wings; tail feathers half orange and half black. Bill and feet black.
Female: Brownish olive above and the orange of the male replaced by yellow.
Song: Resembling that of the Yellow Warbler, "Sweet, Sweet, Sweeter!' but the word is only used three times, while it is repeated seven times by the Warbler.
Season: May to September; a common summer resident.
Breeds: From middle United States northward.
Nest: A carefully made structure of moss fibres and sometimes horse. hair, set in a forked branch usually about twenty feet from the ground; I have seen one at the top of a small spruce.
Eggs: Indistinguishable from other Warblers.
Range: North America, north to Fort Simpson, west regularly to the Great Basin, casually to the Pacific Coast; in winter the West Indies, and from southern Mexico through Central America to northern South America.

Again the colour title of a bird is a misnomer. Redstart, a corruption of the German roth stert, red tail, being very misleading in this day of accurate colour distinctions. Mrs.

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