384 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



spicuous by its absence, for he says: "In the spring of 1918 none of 

 these birds was seen about their favourite haunts near Wolfville, in 

 spite of the fact that a diligent search was made." On migration in 

 New England it is not confined to the coniferous woods, but may be 

 found wherever there are trees and bushes, in the undergrowth in 

 deciduous woods, in brushy thickets, in sprout lands, and even in 

 orchards or the shrubbery in our gardens. 



Milton B. Trautman (1940) records a well-marked migration around 

 Buckeye Lake, Ohio, saying: "The first spring arrivals occasionally 

 appeared in the first week in March, but usually they did not arrive 

 until March 15 to 23, and it was not until after March 27 that the 

 species could be daily encountered in small numbers. The daily 

 numbers rapidly increased after April 3, and at the height of spring 

 abundance, between April 9 and 21, between 25 and 150 birds were 

 recorded daily. During migrations the majority of individuals in- 

 habited the brushier portions of woodlands, brushy thickets, weedy 

 fence rows, and thickets of hawthorn and wild plum." 



Nesting. — Henry D. Minot (1877) was the first ornithologist to 

 discover the nest of the golden-crowned kinglet, on July 16, 1875, "in 

 a forest of the White Mountains [New Hampshire],' which consisted 

 chiefly of evergreens and white birches." The nest "hung four feet 

 above the ground, from a spreading hemlock-bough, to the twigs of 

 which it was firmly fastened; it was globular, with an entrance in the 

 upper part, and was composed of hanging moss, ornamented with bits 

 of dead leaves, and lined chiefly with feathers. It contained six 

 young birds, but much to my regret no eggs." 



The most elaborate account of the nesting of this species is that 

 given by Mr. Brewster (1888), describing the three nests that he 

 secured, near Winchendon, Mass., during that season. The first 

 nest, taken June 29, "was placed in a tall, slender spruce {A. nigra), 

 on the south side, within about two feet from the top of the tree, and 

 at least sixty feet above the ground, suspended among the pendant 

 twigs about two inches directly below a short horizontal branch, some 

 twelve inches out from the main stem, and an equal distance from the 

 end of the branch. The tree stood near the upper edge of a narrow 

 strip of dry, rather open woods bordered on one side by a road, on the 

 other by an extensive sphagnum swamp." Externally, the nest varies 

 in depth from 3.60 to 2.70, and in diameter from 4.20 to 3.00 inches, 

 being irregular in outline. 



Brewster says: 



The top of the nest is open, but the rim is slightly contracted or arched on every 

 side over the deep hollow which contained the eggs. * * * The cavity is 

 oblong, not round. The walls vary in thickness from 1.35 to .40. Outwardly 

 they are composed chiefly of green mosses [five species of Hypnum and one of 



