104 Bird Studies. 



The Golden-crowned has a much more elaborate coloration about the 

 head. The region about the eye in an adult male is black, then comes a 

 stripe of white tinged with olive, extending back below a black stripe about 

 equal in width, forming a distinct border to the crown except on the back of 

 the head. Next to the black is a lemon yellow stripe about the same width 

 as the other stripes, and the crown of the head inside these stripes is deep 

 cadmium yellow. The head of the female is like this except that it lacks 

 cadmium, the entire crown being lemon yellow. 



The nest and eggs of the birds are essentially alike. A pensile or semi- 

 pensile nest of mosses, strips of soft bark, and rootlets is suspended in a fork 

 in some coniferous tree, at varying heights up to sixty feet. It is well felted, 

 and woven and lined with feathers. From five to nine and even ten eggs 

 are laid. These are creamy white in ground color, speckled and blotched 

 with varying shades of reddish brown. The eggs of the Ruby-crowned 

 Kinglet are less marked than those of the Golden-crowned. The eggs are a 

 little more than half an inch long, and about two fifths of an inch broad. 



The birds are gregarious in the migration and often associated. Both 

 are songsters, but the vocal powers of the Ruby-crown exceed those of his 

 congener. 



They have a similar geographical distribution, breeding from the north- 

 ern part of the United States northward. The Golden-crown also breeds on 

 the higher elevations of the Alleghanies south into North Carolina. The 

 Ruby-crown breeds chiefly north of the United States, but also in the ele- 

 vated regions of the Rocky Mountains south into Colorado and New Mexico. 

 The Ruby-crowned Kinglet winters from the Carolinas southward into 

 Central America. The Golden-crown remains common as far north as 

 Massachusetts, and winters from that point to the South Atlantic and Gulf 

 States, 



The Tufted Titmouse is a small leaden colored bird resembling a Jay 

 that whistles loud and clear like a schoolboy calling to his playfellows scat- 

 tered about the wood. He has a black forehead and a 

 Tufted Titmouse. i ,. , . , , , ,., , f , 



pams bicoior Linn. pronounced crest, which is lead color like the rest of the 



upper parts including wings and tail. The under parts are 

 lighter gray becoming white on the belly, and the sides and flanks are washed 

 with tawny brown. These birds are about six inches long. They breed in 

 holes, generally those abandoned by the smaller woodpeckers, lining them 



