GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, AND OLIVE 459 
and frolics through the oaks in flocks, busily search- 
ing under every leaf for insect food. It is quite a dif- 
ferent matter in the high forests of the Sierra Nevada 
where he goes to rear his brood. There he is shyest of 
the shy, keeping mysteriously in the tops of the tall firs 
and giving you only a tantalizing glimpse now and then. 
One female that I watched, or tried to watch, was evi- 
dently constructing a nest, for she could be seen flutter- 
ing about with her bill filled with nesting material of 
some sort, and carrying it always to the same tall spruce 
with a comical air of business. On all these trips she 
was accompanied by the male, who came and went with 
her, but never, that I could see, brought any load him- 
self. Whenever she dropped down to where she was 
building her nest among the thick branches, her mate 
perched higher in the same tree and warbled in con- 
tinuous low, sweet song, every now and then dart- 
ing out, flycatcher fashion, after an insect — which he 
greedily ate. The song opened with a high-keyed, clear 
crescendo in tone and volume, diminishing rapidly as it 
ran down the scale, and was repeated over and over 
without much variation, like the song of a canary. 
749. RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. — Regulus calendula. 
Famity: The Kinglets, Gnatcatchers, ete. 
Length : 4.00-5.00. 
Adult Male: Bright crimson crown patch, more or less concealed ; upper 
parts grayish olive, greener on rump; two narrow white wing-bars ; 
under parts grayish white, sometimes tinged with greenish. 
Adult Female, and Young: Similar, but lacking the crimson crown 
patch, 
