5IO NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the Genesee valley, where troops of hundreds of kinglets are a common 

 sight during early April. They are extremely active in habits, continually 

 flying from branch to branch and almost as acrobatic as chickadees in 

 their search for cocoons and hibernating insects. As they fly about they 

 utter very often a high " ti-ti," which Chapman says is audible only to 

 the practised ear. I have never heard it, the sound being pitched too 

 high for my auditory organs. In its summer home the Kinglet gives 

 voice to a lisping warble which Brewster describes as a succession of five 

 or six shrill, high-pitched, somewhat faltering notes, ending with a short, 

 rapid, rather explosive warble. The opening notes are given in a rising 

 key but the song falls rapidly at the end. The whole may be expressed 

 as follows: tsee-tsee-tsee-tsee, ti, ti, ter, ti-ti-ti-ti. The nest of the Kinglet 

 is placed in coniferous trees at varying heights from the ground, sometimes 

 within reach, sometimes 60 feet high. It is suspended among the thicker 

 portions of the branches, composed of soft inner bark of trees, green 

 mosses and feathers. The eggs are 8 to 10 in number, creamy white in 

 ground color, speckled and blotched with pale brown and lavender. They 

 average .55 by .44 inches in dimensions. 



In its service to the agriculturist, this bird should be considered fully 

 as beneficial as the chickadees and the nuthatches, for its food consists 

 almost entirely of insects, whereas both nuthatches and chickadees 

 consume a considerable portion of seeds and fruits. 



Regulus calendula calendula (Linnaeus) 

 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 



Plate 104 



Motacilla calendula Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 12. 1766. 1:337 

 Regulus calendula DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 64, fig. 119 

 Regulus calendula calendula A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 356. 



No. 749 



calendula, Lat., gerund from caleo, to be warm or glow, that is the flaming crest 



Description. Upper parts greenish olive; 2 whitish wing bars; male with 

 a flaming ruby patch in the center of the crown which is absent or dimly 



