EASTERN RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET 405 



never assisted. Candor bids me remark however, that his tireless assiduity in 

 harvesting for the young more than offset this disparity. * * * 



With my face only a couple of feet distant from the nest the pair continued 

 their work scarcely conscious of my presence. True, at first they hovered above 

 me with sweet queries in their throats and entered the nest from the opposite 

 side of the bough but soon this discretion was forsaken for perfect freedom. 

 Twice, the male warbling an undertone alighted within two feet of my hand on 

 the supporting guy rope of the ladder. A pretty performance and employed 

 only by the male was to flit from the nest and become suspended on whirring wings 

 before me, like a hummingbird before a flower. 



Plumages. — Young ruby-crowned kinglets, in juvenal plumage, 

 look very much like young goldencrowns, but their coloration is 

 darker and they show the light eye ring instead of the superciliary 

 stripes. Ridgway (1904) described the young bird, in first plumage, 

 as "similar to the adult female, but upper parts browner (nearly hair 

 brown), wing-bands tinged with brownish buffy, under parts less 

 yellowish, and texture of plumage more lax." 



The postjuvenal molt, accomplished before the bird migrates, is 

 incomplete, involving the contour plumage and the wing coverts, 

 but not the rest of the wings or the tail. This produces a first winter 

 plumage which is practically indistinguishable from that of the adult 

 in each sex. The young males usually assume the scarlet vermilion 

 crown patch, but in some cases it is more nearly orange in color. Some 

 males in full song in spring have no vestige of the crown patch. 



The spring plumage is acquired by wear, with sometimes the renewal 

 of a few feathers. A complete postnuptial molt occurs late in summer. 

 Fall birds, in fresh plumage, are more brightly colored than spring 

 birds, more olive above and more buffy below. 



There has been some discussion in the past as to whether the female 

 ever has a red or an orange crown patch, but I believe it is now agreed 

 that she does not. Specimens labeled as females may have been 

 wrongly sexed. But it may be that, as in some other species, a very 

 old female may assume, at least partially the plumage of the male. 



The reported orange or yellow crown patch in the young male 

 seems to be very rare, and it has been suggested that this color may 

 change later to the usual bright red, this suggestion is strengthened 

 by the fact that the specimens showing this yellowish crown were 

 taken in fall; however, this matter still remains to be settled. 



Food. — Professor BeaPs (1907) analysis of the contents of the stom- 

 achs of 294 ruby-crowned kinglets, although taken in California, will 

 probably give a very fair idea of the food of the species elsewhere. 

 The food consisted of 94 percent animal matter, "insects, spiders, and 

 pseudoscorpions — minute creatures resembling microscopic lobsters," 

 and 6 percent vegetable matter, fruit and seeds. "Hymenoptera, in 

 the shape of wasps, and a few ants appear to be the favorite food, as 



