EASTERN GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET 393 



sharp-shinned hawk and the screech owl, would be likely to bother 

 with such small fry as kinglets. The cowbird does not seem to have 

 found access to its well-concealed nest but once (Friedmann, 1934), 

 and it has no competitors for its nesting site. Harold S. Peters (1936) 

 lists one louse, Philopterus incisus, and one fly, Ornithoica confiuenta, 

 as externpJ parasites on the eastern golden-crowned kinglet. 



James G. Needham (1909) shows some photographs of a number of 

 golden-crowned kinglets that had become entangled in the hooks of 

 the ripening heads on several clumps of burdocks; he says: 



They were visible in all directions, scores of them sticking to the tops of the 

 clumps on the most exposed clusters of heads. The struggle had ended fatally for 

 all that I saw, and its severity was evidenced by the attitudes of their bodies and 

 the disheveled condition of their plumage. 



I examined a number of the burdock heads to determine what attraction had 

 brought the Kinglets within range of the hooks, and found insect larvae of two 

 species present in considerable abundance. Most abundant were the seed-eating 

 larvae of an obscure little moth (Metzgeria lapella), but the larvae of the well- 

 known burdock weevil were also present in some numbers. Doubtless, it was in 

 attempting to get these larvae that the Kinglets (mostly young birds) were 

 captured. 



Winter. — In spite of its diminutive size, the golden-crowned kinglet 

 is a hardy little mite and spends the winter in much of its summer 

 range, though in reduced numbers, even as far north as Maine and 

 Nova Scotia. Miss Stanwood says in her notes: "The kinglets were 

 abundant during the severe winter of 1906 and 1907. When I went 

 to distribute my food supply for the birds near the boiling spring in 

 the woods, they followed me to the spring and back, sometimes 

 gleaning from tree to tree, or hopping and running ahead of me over 

 the snow. Undoubtedly, in very cold weather many of the kinglets 

 perish for lack of sufficient food to keep the vital fires burning. The 

 winter of 1906 and 1907 was a cruel winter for the birds." 



With us, in Massachusetts, these little feathered gems are among 

 our most charming winter visitors, sometimes abundant but often 

 scarce or entirely absent. We usually find them in the evergreen 

 woods, pines or hemlocks, or in the cedar swamps where they find 

 more protection from the cold winds. We see them flitting through 

 the woods, gleaning from the lower branches, or hovering close to the 

 tree trunks in search of food; sometimes we catch a glimpse of the 

 golden crown, as the bird forages upon the ground among the pine 

 needles. Often they form jolly little roving bands, with chickadees, 

 a brown creeper or two, and perhaps a downy woodpecker, adding 

 cheer to the dark and dreary winter woods. But they are not always 

 confined to the coniferous woods; they frequent mixed woods and 

 open woods, where birches grow along the woodland paths, and are 

 often seen in orchards or in the shrubbery of our home grounds and 



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