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 beauti- fully 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 giv- ing 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 ornithol- ogist well up in field practice.

American Redstart: Setophaga rutieilla. PLATE 20.

Length: 5—6.50 inches.

Male: Above brilliant blue—black, white belly, sides of body and wing linings salmon-orange, whic colour sometimes flushes the br . 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 )7 How.

Song: Resembliug that of the Yellow Warbler, “Sweet, Sweet, Sweeter l " 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 mis-

leading in this day of accurate colour distinctions. Mrs. 115