KINGLETS. 143 
bird’s, but here, — how could such a crown as this 
ever have been hidden? Why, the black lines 
came way down to his absurd little bill, and the 
gold between them was plain enough to be seen 
almost as far off as the bird himself. 
I came in bewildered enough, but the moment 
I saw DeKay’s plates I understood it all. This 
was the golden-crowned, and my pigmies were the 
-ruby-crowned kinglets. After that the two kinds 
were here in great numbers for two weeks, and 
before the rubies left I surprised one of them into 
showing his beautiful scarlet crown. The ruby- 
crowns went as they had come, two weeks in ad- 
vance of the goldens. 
When they were both here I used to stand 
under the apple-trees and watch them. Some- 
times there must have been twenty in one tree. 
They were very tame, but rarely found time to 
look at me. 
Seen together the golden is appreciably the 
smaller; his legs look shorter, and he is not so 
plump, — appears more like an ordinary bird. 
His back is grayer than the ruby’s, and when his 
wings are crossed over it you get an effect of bars 
near the tips. Mr. Golden-crown has a concealed 
patch of cadmium orange in the centre of his 
crown, but his wife is content with the plain gold, 
and the children often show neither black nor 
gold. The goldens seem to have less of the wild 
bluebird habit of lifting their wings when lit, but 
