Olive Thorne Miller is on the right path when she describes it as wearing the Oriole's colour combination, — except that the Redstart has a more salmonish cast.
This Warbler, when it flutters through the spruces, seems the veriest mite of creation, appearing much smaller than its measurements indicate. The female is equally charming in her brown and yellow habit, and together they are one of the most interesting couples of the bird world, as well as being capital illustrations of perpetual motion.
Though the Redstart is a summer resident here, it is more visibly abundant during the May migration, as those that breed retire from the vicinity of dwellings to nest. I once found a nest in process of construction in a spruce in a remote part of the garden, and had the satisfaction of seeing it completed and occupied. Its composition was very similar to that of the Yellow Warbler, but smaller, and with the addition of some green moss which decorated the outside. One of their most characteristic motions while searching for food, is to raise the wings slightly and alight on a higher branch or else one a little in the rear of the spot where they were before, as if a breeze had lifted them.
In brillianey of flame-like colouring the Redstart only yields precedence to the Scarlet Tanager, Baltimore Oriole, and the Blackburnian Warbler, and, in contrast to the dark evergreens, it seems a wind-blown firebrand, half glowing, half charred.
FAMILY VIREONIDÆ: VIREOS.
Red-eyed Vireo: Vireo olivaceus.
Plate 17. Fig. 2.
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