704 MICIIIC.AN BIRD LIFE. 



TECH NICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Most of the upper parts olive or grayish olive, brighter on the rump; 

 ci-owu with a central patch or stripe of brilliant flame-color, or orange, on either side of 

 wliich is a stripe of dear bright yellow, bounded on the outside by a stripe of black; a 

 white line over the eye; two white wing bars, and most of the wing and tail-feathers edged 

 with yellowish white; imder ])arts vmiform grayish white. The adult female is almost 

 precisely similar, excei)t that the bright crown patch is yellow witliout the central orange 

 stripe. The young of the year show neither yellow nor red on the crown, and often little 

 or no trace of the black strijjes. 



Length 3.15 to -1.50 niches; wing 2.10 to 2.25; tail, l.tiO to 2. 



317. Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Regulus calendula calendula (Liini.). (749) 



Synonyms: Ruby-crowned Wren, Ruby-crown. — Motacilla calendula, Linn., 1700, 

 and most authors. — Sylvia calendula, Wils., 1808. 



Similar to the Golden-crowned Kinglet except for the crown, which in 

 the adult male is plain olive-green with a dash of ruby-red or scarlet vermil- 

 ion, without any stripes of black or white. Young birds and adult females 

 have the crown plain and can be separated from young Golden-crowns 

 only by the expert. 



Distribution. — North America, south to Guatemala, north to the Arctic 

 coast, breeding chiefly north of the United States, and in the Rocky 

 Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and the mountains of Arizona. 



This beautiful little Kinglet is universally distributed throughout the 

 state as a spring and autumn migrant, but probably is not found within 

 our limits during the nesting season. It differs from the Golden-crowned 

 Kinglet in that it appears to be strictly a migrant, not even a single in- 

 dividual lingering here through the winter. It arrives from the south 

 in April and may linger for several weeks, departing for the north by the 

 middle of May and returning in September and October. Before the 

 first of November the last seem to have moved south. The only spring 

 record from a lighthouse is that of an individual killed on Spectacle Reef 

 Light May 5, 1889. One struck Big Sable Light, Lake Superior, October 

 7, 1893 and one Ft. Aux Barques Light, Lake Huron, October 17, 1890. 

 It appears to be much more common in spring than in fall, yet this is 

 probably due to the fact that it is much more musical in spring and its 

 movements cover a shorter time so that the birds are concentrated and 

 more conspicuous. 



The ordinary note while migrating is a high pitched ''tsee" repeated 

 two or three times, but frequently the bird utters snatches of its summer 

 song, which is a rich, varied warble, interspersed with clear whistles, the 

 whole being remarkably loud for so small a bird. It frequently appears 

 in considerable numbers late in April, and not infrequently twenty or 

 thirty individuals may be found in company flitting restlessly about among 

 the bare twigs, calling loudly to each other and moving rapidly from tree 

 to tree. At this time, as always, they are feeding exclusively on insects 

 and their eggs and thus doing an immense amount of good. 



The species is not readily distinguished from the other Kinglet unless 

 it happens to hang head downward or expose the ruby color of the crown. 

 In the autumn the two species sometimes occur together and then birds 

 of the year are practically indistinguishable. 



The nest and eggs of the Rul)y-crowned Kinglet are not separable with 

 certainty from those of the Golden-crown, but while the latter bird in all 



