180 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



beneath it, white; exterior of the crown before and laterally black, embracing a 

 central patch of orange-red, encircled by gamboge-yellow ; a dusky space around 

 the eye; wing coverts with two yellowish-white bands, the posterior covering, a 

 similar band on the quills, succeeded by a broad dusky one; imder parts dull 

 whitish. 



The black of the head immediately succeeds the white frontal band as one of 

 about tlie same width, passing behind on each side. Generally the white line over 

 the ej'e is separated from the white forehead by a dusky lore. There is also a 

 dusky space beneath the whitish under the eye. The yellow of the crown 

 generally overlies and conceals the orange. The orange is wanting in the fe- 

 male. The young birds always appear to have at least the yellow and black of the 



Length, under four inches ; wing, two and twenty-five one-hundredths inches ; 

 tail, one and eighty one-hundredths inches. 



This handsome and active species is also a common bird, 

 coming to us from the North the last of September, but, 

 unlike the preceding, braving the rigors of our winter; 

 and it leaves again by the 15th of April. Numbers, how- 

 ever, winter farther south ; and it is in spring and autumn 

 that the species is most abundant. On their arrival in 

 autumn, they frequent orchard trees, feeding among the 

 leaves of the apple-trees, which, at this season, are infested 

 with insects. Later, and in winter, they resort more often 

 to the evergreens, — such as the pine, spruce, and cedar, 

 but rove wherever they can find food, generally in company 

 with the Chickadees, and occasionally the White-breasted 

 Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, and Downy Woodpecker; the 

 whole forming a lively, busy winter party, as they perambu- 

 late the country, intent on gathering their now scanty food. 

 Their call-note at this season, indeed the only note that I 

 have heard at any time, is a faint pipe or whistle, sounded 

 quickly three or four times. I have never heard this bird 

 utter the querulous note assigned to it by Audubon and 

 Nuttall, but have often heard the Ruby Crown give this 

 strain. In spring, having similar habits and diet with the 

 Ruby Crowns, they frequent the same hunting-grounds, and 

 are seen hanging to the extremities of twigs, head down- 

 wards, and sometimes fluttering in the air in front of them, 

 seizing small flies, " and often exposing the golden feathers 



