416 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



ed in Massachusetts at that season ; and with their 

 nest and habits of incubation we are unacquainted. In the 

 fall they seek society apparently with the Titmouse and 

 Golden-Crested Wren, with whom they are intimate- 

 ly related in habits, manners, and diet ; the whole form- 

 ing a busy, silent, roving company, with no object in 

 view but that of incessantly gleaning their now scanty 

 and retiring prey. So eagerly, indeed, are they engaged 

 at this time, that scarcely feeling sympathy for each oth- 

 er, or willing to die any death but that of famine, they 

 continue almost uninterruptedly to hunt through the 

 same tree from which their unfortunate companions have 

 just fallen by the destructive gun. They only make at 

 this time, occasionally, a feeble chirp, and take scarcely 

 any alarm, however near they are observed. 



The Ruby-crowned Wren is a httle more than 4 inches long, and 

 6 in alar extent. Above green-olive. Wings and tail dusky greyish- 

 brown, edged with olive-yellow ; secondaries and first row of wing- 

 coverts edged and tipt with whitish. The hind head ornamented 

 with a vermilion spot ; round the eye a ring of yellowish- white. 

 Beneath yellowish- white. Legs and feet dusky brown. The colors 

 of the female are less lively. 



CUVIER'S CRESTED WREN. 



{Regulus Cuvierii, AvBVBOn , pi. 55. Orn. Biog. i. p. 288.) 

 Sp. Charact. — Cinereous olivaceous, beneath greyish-white ; 

 crown vermilion, anteriorly margined with black ; cheeks cine- 

 reous, a black band from the front, through the eyes. 



This is another interesting addition to the North 

 American Fauna, which we owe to the talent and supe- 

 rior devotion to ornithology of its celebrated discoverer. 

 No species can be better marked or more strikingly dis- 

 tinguished. It has the ruby-crown of jR. calendulus with 

 the black border of the R. cristatus. The only specimen 

 yet known was shot by its describer, on the 8th of June, 



