THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 93 



humming bird, the smallest of the birds which find a 

 home in New Jersey. The Golden-crowned Kinglet is 

 only four inches in length; bill, one-quarter of an inch; 

 upper parts, grayish olive, more ashy on the hind neck; 

 crown black, with a yellow central stripe, in the middle 

 of which is a brilliant orange patch; tail, dark brownish 

 slate, with yellow olive edgings; wings, the same, with 

 two whitish bars across the forepart; under surface of 

 the body, light gray, tinged with olive; a whitish line 

 crosses the forehead and extends back over the eyes; there 

 is a dusky line from the base of the lower mandible, and 

 a dark spot before the eye. The female lacks the bright 

 orange centre to the yellow crown stripe. 



The nest, considering the size of the bird, is bulky; it is 

 almost invariably found in evergreen trees and is made of 

 moss and lichens, the inside lined with fine bark, small 

 roots and feathers. The eggi^ are nine or ten in number, 

 of a light gray with brown spots, and one- half by two- 

 fifths of an inch in size. 



It breeds along the northern border of the United States 

 and northward — also southwaid along the mountain 

 ranges. In winter it goes as far south as Guatemala. It 

 is a common winter resident in the south rn part of New 

 Jersey, being frequently found in considerable numbers 

 between the first of October and the twentieth of April. 



Its call-note is a high ti-ti, and its song is described by 

 Mr. Brewster as "a succession of five or six fine, shrill, 

 high-pitched, somewhat faltering notes, ending with a 

 short, rapid, rather exi)losive w^arble. The opening notes 

 are given in a rising key, but the song falls rapidly at the 

 end. The whole may be expressed as follows : fzee, tzee, 

 tzee, tzee, ti, ti, ter, ti-ti-titi. 



The food of the bird is exclusively insects, which it 

 gathers mainly from the bark of evergreen trees. 



Kinglet.1 Ruby-Crownetl. — This bird is a little larger 

 than tlie preceding but in most respects very similar to it. 



