392 BULLETIN 19 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



rising. It is similar to the beginning of the ruby-crowned song, but 

 higher pitched and with longer notes. My records show from two to 

 nine notes in this part of the song. The second part is a series of very 

 rapid, loud, harsh notes, descending in pitch, so different from the first 

 part that it hardly seems to belong to the same song or bird. There 

 are from four to nine notes in this part of the song, and the drop in 

 pitch to the last note is sometimes more than an octave. A fairly 

 typical song would be eeee, teeee, teeee, teeee, teeee, chititdtatiitup. The 

 pitch of fourteen records in my collection varies from F ' ' ' ' to D ' ' . 

 Individual songs vary considerably, especially in the last part. 



"This song is rather rarely heard in the spring migration in April, 

 but is commonly heard in June, or early July, on the breeding grounds. 

 Twelve of my 14 records come from breeding birds in the Adirondack^, 

 and the other two from migrating birds in Connecticut. In winter 

 the common call is like the first part of the song, but the notes are 

 shorter and fainter, and so high-pitched that the sound is difficult for 

 many people to hear." 



Francis H. Allen refers to the song in his notes as "a pleasing per- 

 formance, beginning with a number of fine, high notes and containing 

 a lower-pitched and mellow willy, willy, willy that is quite charming." 

 On April 20, 1900, when my hearing was good, on the coast of Maine, 

 I recorded in my notes a song of nine notes, of which I wrote that 

 "the first three notes are the same as their winter notes, rather faint 

 and lisping, uttered slowly; the second three are on a higher key, 

 louder and fuller toned; the last three notes are on the descending 

 scale, with increasing rapidity, but decreasing in volume, suggesting 

 the last part of the chickadee's song." Miss Stanwood (MS.) puts 

 the song partly into words, which are rather expressive, "zee, zee, zee, 

 zee, zee, why do you shilly-shally." 



Her notes record the kinglets in song, occasionally as early as March 

 15, regularly from the middle of April, on through the breeding season, 

 once as late as August 26, and occasionally in fall, September 26 and 

 October 12. Professor Brooks tells me that, curiously enough, he 

 has never heard the golden-crowned kinglet in full song in West 

 Virginia, in spite of the fact that it breeds there abundantly. 



Field marks. — The kinglet is one of our smallest birds, a tiny ball 

 of fluffy plumage, olive and buffy-gray in color. The orange-and- 

 yellow crown of the male and the yellow crown of the female, bordered 

 with black, are quite distinctive. The orange center in the male's 

 crest does not always show, but flashes out under excitement. Young 

 birds of both sexes have no orange or yellow in the crown, and might 

 be mistaken for ruby-crowned kinglets, but the ruby-crowned has a 

 conspicuous light eye ring which the young golden-crowned lacks. 



Enemies. — Probably only the smaller hawks and owls, such as the 



