RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. 



The song of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet is astonishingly 

 loud and clear for so tiny a singer, and it is praised by all 

 who are acquainted with it for a most remarkable sweetness 

 and brilliance of tone. That, however, does not help us to 

 recognize the song in the woods; such expressions might 

 apply equally well to the inimitable song of the Hermit 

 Thrush. The question is, what occurs in his song which 

 differentiates it from all others? To answer that one 

 should confine the analysis to simple facts, which must 

 largely discount pure sentiment. I quote from Bradford 

 Torrey, that incomparable analyst of character in nature, 

 who writes comparing the songs of the Golden-crown and 

 the Ruby-crown "The two songs are evidently of a 

 common origin, though the Ruby-crown's is so immeasur- 

 ably superior . . . none the less, the resemblance is real. 

 The homeliest man may bear a family likeness to his hand- 

 some brother, though it may show itself only at times, 

 and chance acquaintances may easily be unaware of its 

 existence."* That is exactly true, the structural characters 

 of the two songs bear a strong family resemblance, as is 

 evidenced by the ascent and descent of the scale and the 

 quavering, trilling notes; but the Ruby-crown reverses the 

 order by commonly trilling first and sustaining a few notes 

 afterwards. Notice this point in the following songs 

 obtained in Smuggler's Notch, under Mt. Mansfield, Vt. 



Thrice 



31 I I eg no vi 



And still Mr. Torrey notes another character of the song 

 which is distinctively good analysis "a prolonged and 

 varied warble, introduced and broken into with delightful 

 effect, by a wrennish chatter. For fluency, smoothness, 

 and ease, and especially for purity and sweetness of tone, I 

 have never heard any bird-song that seemed to me more 

 nearly perfect. "f My next notation seems like concrete 

 evidence of the truth of these statements. The song was 



* Vide Footing it in Franconia, p. 192. 

 f Vide Birds in the Bush, p. 236. 



237 



