THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 93 



humming bird, the smallest of the birds which find a 

 home in New Jersey. The Golden-crowned Kinglet is 

 only four inches in length; bill, one quarter of an inch; 

 upper parts, grayish olive, more ashy on the hind neck; 

 crown, black, with a yellow central stripe in the middle 

 of which is a brilliant orange patch; tail, dark brownish 

 slate, with yellow olive edgings; wings, the same with 

 two whitish bars across the forepart; under surface of 

 the body, light gray, tinged with olive; a whitish line 

 crosses the forehead and extends back over the eyes; there 

 is a dusky line from the base of the lower mandible, and 

 a dark spot before the eye. The female lacks the bright 

 orange centre to the yellow crown stripe. 



The nest, considering the size of the bird, is bulky; it is 

 almost invariably found in evergreen trees and is made of 

 moss and lichens, the inside lined with fine bark, smaU 

 roots and feathers. The eggs are nine or ten in number, 

 of a light gray with brown spots, and one-half by two- 

 fifths of an inch in size. 



It breeds along the northern border of the United States 

 and northward also southward along the mountain 

 ranges. In winter it goes as far south as Guatemala. It 

 is a common winter resident in the southern part of New 

 Jersey, being frequently found in considerable numbers 

 between the first of October and the twentieth of April. 



Its call-note is a high ti-ti, and its song is described by 

 Mr. Brewster as u a succession of five or six fine, shrill, 

 high-pitched, somewhat faltering notes, ending with a 

 short, rapid, rather explosive warble. The opening notes 

 are given in a rising key, but the song falls rapidly at the 

 end. The whole may be expressed as follows: tzee, tzee, 

 tzee, tzee, ti, ti, ter, ti-ti-ti-ti" 



The food of the bird is exclusively insects, which it 

 gathers mainly from the bark of evergreen trees. 



Kinglet, Ruby- Crowned. This bird is a little larger 

 than the preceding but in most respects very similar to it. 



