THE RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. 269 



nificant dawn was struggling with great masses of heaped-up clouds, — the 

 incredulities and fears of the world's night; but now and again the invincible 

 sun found some tiny rift and poured a flood of tender gold upon a favored 

 spot where stood some solitary tree or expectant sylvan company. Along the 

 river ban'c all was still. There were no signs of spring, save for the modest 

 springing violet and the pious buckexe, shaking its late-prisoned fronds to 

 the morning air, and tardily setting in order its manifold array of Easter 

 candles. The oak trees were gray and hushed, and the swamp elms held their 

 peace until the fortunes of the morning should be decided. Suddenly from 

 down the river path there came a tiny burst of angel music, the peerless song 

 of the Ruby-crown. Pure, ethereal, without hint of earthly dross or sadness, 

 came those limpid welling notes, the sweetest and the gladdest e\-er sung — at 

 least by those wlm ha\-e not sufTered. It was not indeed the greeting of the 

 earth to the risen Lord, but rather the annunciation of the glorious fact by 

 heaven's own ap])(iinted herald. 



The Rub}'-crowned Kinglet has something of the nervousness and \-ivaci- 

 ty of the typical wren. It moves restlessly from twig to twig, flirting its 

 wings with a motion too quick for the eyes to follow, and frecjuently uttering 

 a titter of alarm, chit-tit or chit-it-it. During migrations the liirds swarm 

 thru the tree-to])s like Warblers, but are often found singlv or in small com- 

 panies in thickets or open clusters of saplings. In such situations they exhibit 

 more or less curiosity, and if one keeps reasonably still he is almost sure to 

 be inspected from a distance not exceeding four or five feet. It is here too 

 that the males are found singing in spring. The bird often begins sotfo z'occ 

 with two or three high scpieaks as tho trving to get the i>itch dinvn to the 

 range of mortal ears before he gives his full voice. The core of the song is 

 something like tciv, tczi', fcii', teii'. titonrcct' , titoorcct' . the last phrases being- 

 given with a rising inflection, and with an accent of ra\-ishing sweetness. The 

 tones are so pure that they may readily be whistled by the human listener, 

 and a musical contest provoked in which one is glad to come out second 

 best. 



Ha\-ing heard only the preparatory spring song for years, it was a matter 

 of considerable rejoicing to come upon the birds at home in Stevens Countv. 

 They were esi^ecially cimimon in the neighborhood of Newport, and thev sang 

 incessantly anrl loudly from the depths of the giant larches, which abound 

 there. It appears that the full-fledged breeding song is quite different from 

 the delicate migratorv carol. The preliminary notes are of mucli the same 

 qualit}', but instead of accenting the final s}dlable of the titoorcct phrase, and 

 repeating this, the phrase is given only once, with a sort of tittering, tremolo 

 effect, and the emphasis is thrown upon a series of strong, sharp terminal 

 notes, four or five in number, and of a uniform character — the whole some- 

 what as follows : tezv tciv teiv tew tittcrcttcrcttcr reef, cheep' cheep' cheep' 



