BIRDS OF NEW YORK 509 



black on sides and front inclosing a yellow patch which in the male is centered 

 with flaming orange; black of the crown bordered on the sides and front 

 by whitish, these crown markings giving the appearance of a striped head, 

 the white lines being just above the eye succeeded by broad black line, fol- 

 lowed by yellow and, in the male, with a central portion of orange; under 

 parts dull white. 



Length 4.1 inches; extent 6.75-7; wing 2.15; tail 1.75; bill .28. 



Distribution. This species in eastern North America breeds from 

 northern Alberta, southern Keewatin, southern Ungava and Cape Breton 

 island south to northern Michigan, New York and the mountains of 

 Massachusetts, southward to the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico, 

 and in the higher Alleghanies to North Carolina. In New York, as far 

 as my records show, it is confined as a breeding species to the boreal zone 

 in the Adirondacks and higher Catskills, being, with the Winter wren, 

 the Brown creeper, the Hermit thrush, the White-throated sparrow and 

 the Junco, one of the commonest summer birds of the higher Adirondacks. 

 In the remainder of the State it is an abundant transient visitant and a 

 fairly common winter resident. Throughout central and western New 

 York it is much less common in winter than the Chickadee, and about as 

 common as the Brown creeper. During the migrations it is abundant, 

 appearing in large numbers from March 30 to April 5, sometimes not 

 arriving in force till the middle of April and passing northward between 

 the 4th and the I2th of May, a few females sometimes lingering as late 

 as the 25th. In the fall it makes its appearance between the 2Oth of 

 September and the 5th of October, being abundant again until the early 

 part of November, when the greater number of migrants have passed 

 farther south. In the lower Hudson valley and the other warmer portions 

 of the State it is common as a winter visitant. 



Haunts and habits. In winter the kinglets prefer the shelter of ever- 

 greens, frequenting hemlocks, pines and cedars in the swamps and ravines, 

 in company with chickadees, nuthatches, creepers and Downy woodpeckers. 

 During the migration season they are found about our dooryards and shade 

 trees, parks, groves and woodlands, sometimes being fully as abundant as 

 the Junco, especially in the country just south of Lake Ontario and in 



