FAMILY Sylvildae. 



Michigan, aiid the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico. 

 The song of the Golden-crowned Kinglet is character- 

 ized by a series of three or four (possibly more) high- 

 pitched, quavering notes which ascend the scale rather 

 unevenly and are succeeded by an indefinite number of 

 sharply staccato descending trills, the first three or four 

 notes have the zee, zee, zee quality of tone described by 

 Bradford Torrey in Birds in the Bush. Bearing in mind 

 that this bird is singing mostly in the highest octave of 

 the piano and quite a major third above the final (', it \A 

 not surprising that the ornithologist is at a loss for some 

 means to describe such a song. Below, it appears as I 

 obtained it among the spruces of the Franconia Notch: 



Bradford Torrey calls these descending tones "a hurried, 

 jumbled, ineffective coda,"* which is not flattering but 

 truthful. The common call is two or three wiry notes in an 

 impossible, high E or F expressed by a sibilant see, see see. 



Ruby-crowned This Kinglet is infinitely the superior sing- 

 Kinglet er Q f tne two jj e j g not more beautiful, 



calendula however, in the coloring of his head which 



E. 4.30 inches carries a crest of ruby-red feathers under or- 

 Aprll 4th dinary circumstances partly or entirely con- 



cealed, but the little flaming crest is erect under stress of ex- 

 citement. The upper and under parts of the Ruby-crown 

 are similar to those of the Golden-crown, and the two wing- 

 bars are the same, but there is a tinge of Naples yellow on 

 the sides of this bird not present on the other. Nest and 

 eggs similar to those of the Golden-crown, but the egg more 

 lightly marked. The range of the species is from Alaska to 

 central Ungava south to Nova Scotia, northern Maine, On- 

 tario, and through the mountains to New Mexico and south- 

 ern California. It winters from Iowa and Virginia southward 

 to Guatemala. The Kinglets are often associated with the 

 Chickadees in winter in the northern parts of New England. 



* Vide Footing it in Franconia, p. 192. 

 236 



