RUBY-CROWNED WREN. 415 



RUBY-CROWNED WREN. 



(Regulus calendulus, Stepheivs^Bonap. Sylvia calendula, Wilson, i. 

 p. 83. pi. 5. fig. 3. Phil. Museum, No. 7244.) 



Sp. Charact. — Olivaceous; beneath whitish; crown vermilion, 

 and without the black margin. 



This beautiful little species passes the summer and 

 breeding season in the colder parts of the North-Ameri- 

 can continent, penetrating even to the dreary coasts of 

 Greenland, where, as well as around Hudson's Bay, 

 they probably rear their young in solitude, and obtain 

 abundance of the diminutive flying insects, gnats, and 

 cynips, on which, with small caterpillars, they and their 

 young delight to feed. In the months of October and 

 November, the approach of winter in their natal regions 

 stimulates them to migrate towards the South, when 

 they arrive in the Eastern and Middle States, and fre- 

 quent in a familiar and unsuspicious manner the gardens 

 and orchards : how far they proceed to the south is un- 

 certain. On the 12th of January I observed them near 

 Charleston, South Carolina, with companies of Sylvias, 

 busily darting through the evergreens in swampy situa- 

 tions, in quest of food, probably minute larvae. About 

 the first week in March I again observed them in West 

 Florida in great numbers, busily employed for hours to- 

 gether in the tallest trees, some of which were already 

 unfolding their blossoms, such as the maples and oaks. 

 About the beginning of April they are seen in Pennsyl- 

 vania on their way to the dreary limits of the continent, 

 where they probably only arrive towards the close of 

 May, so that in the extremity of their range they do not 

 stay more than three months. Wilson, it would appear, 

 sometimes met with them in Pennsylvania even in sum- 

 mer ; but, as far as I can learn, they are never observ- 



