638 HISTORY OF THE 



ingly clear, . tender, varied, resonant song (heard during the 

 mated and early breeding season), a detailed description would 

 be hardly necessary. As it is, I take pleasure in quoting from 

 Dr. Elliott Coues' happy description of the birds: 



"To observe the manners of the Ruby-crowned, one need 

 only repair, at the right season, to the nearest thicket, coppice, 

 or piece of shrubbery, such as the Titmice, Yellow-rumps and 

 other Warblers love to haunt. These are its favorite resorts, 

 especially in the fall and winter; though sometimes, in the spring 

 more particularly, it seems to be more ambitious, and its slight 

 form may be almost lost among the branchlets of the taller trees, 

 where the equally diminutive Parula is most at home. We shall 

 most likely find it not alone, but in straggling troops, which 

 keep up a sort of companionship with each other as well as with 

 different birds, though each individual seems to be absorbed in 

 its peculiar business. We hear the slender, wiry note, and see 

 the little creatures skipping nimbly about the smaller branches 

 in endlessly varied attitudes, peeping into the crevices of the 

 bark for their minute insect food, taking short, nervous flights 

 from one bough to another, twitching their wings as they alight, 

 and always too busy to pay attention to what may be going on 

 around them. They appear to be incessantly in motion I 

 know of no birds more active than these presenting the very 

 picture of restless, puny energy, making ' much ado about noth- 

 ing.' . . . 



' ' One of the most remarkable things about the Ruby-crowned 

 is its extraordinary powers of song. It is really surprising that 

 such a tiny creature should be capable of the strong and sus- 

 tained notes it utters when in full song. The lower larynx, the 

 sound-producing organ, is not much bigger than a good-sized 

 pin's head, and the muscles that move it are almost microscopic 

 shreds of flesh. If the strength of the human voice were in 

 the same proportion to the size of the larynx, we could converse 

 with ease at the distance of a mile or more. The Kinglet's ex- 

 quisite vocalization defies description; we can only speak in gen- 

 eral terms of the power, purity and volume of the notes, their 

 faultless modulation and long continuance. Many doubtless 



