KINGLETS , 615 



accompanies the female as she is building, uttering constantly a 

 shrill, characteristic song sounding much like "tsee, tsee, tsee, 

 tsee, tsee, ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, ti," which is answered by a 

 "chippering" call by the female. Here and there in the tops 

 of the higher trees they dodge, the female passing here and 

 there, gathering material, and very closely followed by the 

 male, both erecting their crests more or less frequently. Finally 

 she goes to the nest, is there only a few seconds and leaves to 

 gather more material. At this time the nest can be quite 

 readily found by devoting sufficient time to search, aided by 

 keen eyes and good field glasses. The female with her mouth 

 full of material can be followed until she leaves it in the thick 

 top of some tree, generally a spruce, though often either fir or 

 hemlock, and more rarely a pine. When she has been seen to 

 go several times with material to this same spot, the nest has 

 been located. I have had no difficulty, given two or three 

 hours time, in locating a nest in this manner during the last 

 week of May or the first two weeks of June. 



Occasionally nests are placed quite low down, for example 

 the historic nest found near Bangor so many years ago which 

 was placed only six feet from the ground in a fir tree. My 

 experience has been that they are more frequently placed well 

 up in the trees, and while many nests have been recorded from 

 heights of thirty feet, a majority of those I have located or 

 been present when they were located, in inland localities were 

 nearer forty to fifty feet in elevation. On the densely wooded 

 islands along the coast they place their nests lower down, not 

 over twenty feet up, on an average. 



The nests are in general pensile or semi-pensile. They are 

 composed of green mosses, lichens, usnea, fine soft bark and 

 rootlets, lined with feathers. Though sometimes on or against 

 a big limb, they are more generally supported by several small 

 twigs which are woven into the nest near the top of it. Though 

 in general full sets of eggs cannot be expected until June fif- 

 teenth to twentieth, an occasional pair of birds must have fresh 



