KINGLETS AND GNATCATCHERS 



219 



The Wren-Tits have !nn<,' had the di'.tinction 

 of heins the only family of perchini; birds 

 peculiar to the continent of North America. 

 The one species is found exclusively in the Pacific 

 coast district of the United States. 



The Wren-Tits are divided locally, because of 

 slight variatidus. into four ,L;rou]is — the type 

 species {Cliitiiiu-a f,:sciatii ftisciala). the I'allid 

 ^^'ren-Tits (Cliaiiuca fasciata licnsluvK'i ) . Coast 



Wren-Tits { Clnniitru fasciata plnca). and 

 Ruddy Wren-Tils iCIuiiiht'ii fusriala nifiiUi). 

 The\' are small terresli'ial birds, living- in the 

 dense chaiiarral oi the hillsitles and the Idwer 

 mountain slopes. Prudent tn the point of secre- 

 tiveness tlie\- will rem.ain secnrel\- hidden from 

 sight while their merrv /\r('/'-/.-<-<'/i-/.-iT/'-/>'cr/'- 

 kce/^'it, kccf^-it. krcj^-it (Airs. P.ailey ) rings in 

 vour ears. 



KINGLETS AND GNATCATCHERS 



Order Passcics; suborder Osciiics: family Sylvilihc 



HE Syh'iidcc family is part of the larger group of singing Ijirds. It is found 

 in the northern hemisphere in general and in the greater part of the tropical 

 countries of the western hemisphere; it is most numerously represented in 

 the northern part of the eastern hemisphere. It contains a wide variety of 

 forms. The relatively few American forms belong to two groups, one of 

 which, the Gnatcatchers, consisting of a single genus, is peculiar to America, 

 while the other includes two genera, one of which, the Kinglets, is circumpolar 

 and the other, the Willow Warblers, is of northern Europe and Asia, but 

 is sometimes included among the birds of North America because of the 

 occurrence of a single Siberian species {Acaulliopnaislc borcalis), in western 

 Alaska. 

 The American forms of the family are distinguished by the following characteristics: 



bill, much shorter than the head, slender, and rather broad and depressed at the base; nostril 



at least partly exposed, sometimes partly covered by bristly feathers turned upward; 



distinct bristle's at the corners of the mouth; wings, rather long but with rounded tip; tail, 



variable as to relative length but usually decidedly shorter than the wings (longer only 



among the Gnatcatchers), even, notched, slightly double-rounded, or (in the Gnatcatcher 



group) much rounded, the feathers usually broad 



and rounded at the tips but sometimes (in the 



Kinglet genus) somewhat pointed. 



In coloration, the Sylviida: are plain olive, 



olive-green, brown, or bluish-grav above; wings 



and tail, sometimes crown also, Idack, and side 



tail-feathers partly white in the Gnatcatchers, 



the crown of the Kinglets with a yellow, orange, 



or red patch, and under parts whitish, yellowish. 



or pale grayish. The sexes are usttally alike 



or nearly so, and the young as a rule do not 



differ materially from the adults — the young 



of the Kinglets lack the patch of color on 



the crown, and the female and young of the 



Gnatcatchers never have black on the crown. 



The Kinglets and Gnatcatchers are closely related to the Thrushes, but their dimniutive 



size and the unspotted young are unfailing differences. The SylviiJcc, however, ])robaI)ly 



render more service to man than the Thrushes. Their diet is more nearly exclusively 



insectivorous and they destroy numbers of leaf-eating larvae and plant lice. 



R. B. Horsfall Courtesy of Nat. Asso. Aud. hoc, 

 GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS 



