500 THE GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. 



1.15-1.25, brownish-cream, spotted and more or less blotched 

 with dark-brown. 



The note of this species is a soft chuck, and it has not 

 the jaunty jerk of the tail when walking, so noticeable in 

 the Ruffed Grouse. In every way its manner is less self- 

 conscious and gay. It is equally attached to its young, 

 however, and will seek their safety with similar arts of simu- 

 lated distress. Ordinarily it is so tame and unwary, that it 

 may be taken by a noose fastened on the end of a stick. 



Mr. Everett Smith, of Portland, Me., says: "The Canada 

 Grouse performs its 'drumming' upon the trunk of a stand- 

 ing tree of rather small size, preferably one that is inclined 

 from the perpendicular, and in the following manner: Com- 

 mencing near the base of the tree selected, the bird flutters 

 upward with somewhat slow progress, but with rapidly beat- 

 ing wings, w^hich produce the drumming sound. Having thus 

 ascended fifteen or twenty feet, it glides quietly on the wing 

 to the ground, and then repeats the maneuver. Favorite 

 places are resorted to habitually, and these ' drumming trees ' 

 are well known to observant woodsmen. I have seen one 

 that was so well worn upon the bark as to lead to the belief 

 that it had been used for this purpose for many years. This 

 tree was a spruce six inches in diameter, with an inclina- 

 tion of about fifteen degrees from the perpendicular, and 

 was known to have been used as a 'drumming tree' for 

 several seasons. The upper surface and sides of the trunk 

 were so worn by the feet and wings of the bird, or birds, 

 using it for drumming, that for a distance of a dozen or 

 fifteen feet the bark had become quite smooth and red, as if 

 rubbed." 



THE GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. 



Having heard the song of the Golden-crowned Kinglet 

 {Regulus satrapd) to the very last days of June, and having 



