94 THE RUBY-CROWN AN ACCOMPLISHED VOCALIST 



Many doubtless have listened to this music without suspecting 

 that the author was the diminutive Ruby-crown, with whose 

 common-place utterance, the slender wiry"^sip". they were 

 already familiar. Such was once the case even with Audubon, 

 who pays a heartfelt tribute to the accomplished little vocalist, 

 and says further — "When I tell you that its song is t'aWy as 

 sonorous as that of the Ganary-bird, and much richer, I do not 

 come up to the truth, for it is not only as powerful and clear, 

 but much more varied and pleasing." 



This delightful role is chiefly executed during the mating sea- 

 son, and the brief period of exaltation which precedes it; it is 

 consequently seldom heard in regions where the bird does not 

 rear its young, except when the little performer breaks forth in 

 song on nearing its summer resorts. Its breeding places were 

 long uncertain, or at least not clearly traced out, and it is only 

 a year or two since that its nest was discovered. But it is now 

 pretty certain that its nesting range includes the wooded por- 

 tions of the country from ISTorthern Xew Englt»ud and corres- 

 ponding latitudes northward. It is said that a nest containing 

 young was recently found in Western New York; though I 

 am not sure that this is an authentic case, I think it probable 

 that the Kinglet will yet be found to breed in the mountains 

 at least as far south as the Middle States, if not further. 

 This seeuis more probable since the late discoveries of its nest- 

 ing in the Rocky Mountains, and its unquestionable residence 

 during summer in other elevated regions of the Wesi , even of 

 New Mexico and Arizona. Mr. Henshaw si)eaks without reserve 

 on this score : — " The species breeds in the heavy pine and 

 spruce forests on the mountains of Colorado, and also in Arizona, 

 both in the White Mountains, and as far south as Mount Gra- 

 ham, in both which localities I saw tbe old leading about their 

 young, still in the nesting plumage as late as August 1. In 

 the mountains near Fort Garland, Col., it was a common species 

 in June ; the pine woods at an elevation of 10,000 feet often 

 echoing with the music of its sweet, beautifully modulated 

 song. . . . June 11, while collecting on a mountain near the Rio 

 Grande, I discovered a nearly liuished nest, built on a low 

 branch of a pine, which [ have little doubt belonged to this 

 bird." Mr. Allen and Mr. Trippe both observed it in Colorado, 

 in summer, at an altitude of from 9 or 10,000 feet up to timber 

 line, and the first-named obtained the young in the vicinity of 

 Mount Lincoln toward tbe end of July. At Fort Whipple, in 



