TWO LITTLE KINGS 3 
ingly quick and graceful in their motions. Both 
species are of a prevailing greenish or olive shade, 
with noticeable light-colored wing-bars, and light, 
unstreaked, unspotted under parts. 
The ruby-crown is famous as a singer. A 
genuine music-box, we may call him. In spring, 
especially, he is often bubbling over with melody ; 
a rapid, wren-like tune, with sundry quirks and 
turns that are all his own; on the whole de- 
cidedly original, with plenty of what musical 
people call accent and a strongly marked rhythm 
or swing. Over and over he goes with it, as if 
he could never have enough; beginning with 
quick, separate, almost guttural notes, and wind- 
ing up with a twittity, twittity, twittity, which, 
once heard, is not likely to be soon forgotten. 
A very pleasing vocalist he surely is; and 
when his extreme smallness is taken into account 
he is fairly to be esteemed a musical prodigy. 
Every one who has written about the song, from 
Audubon down, has found it hard to say enough 
about it. Audubon goes so far as to say that it 
is as powerful as a canary’s, and much more 
varied and pleasing. That I must think an ex- 
aggeration ; natural enough, no doubt, under the 
circumstances (romantic surroundings count for 
a good deal in all questions of this kind), but 
still a stretching of the truth. However, I give 
