THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



79 



Excepting the humming-bird, the 

 kinglets are our smallest birds. Al- 

 though so small they are hardy enough 

 to endure a considerable amount of cold. 

 On certain mornings in early April, 

 when the rambler finds it comfort- 

 able to keep his hands in his pockets, 

 I have often seen the golden-crown at 

 work undaunted by the cold. Indeed, 

 the birds seem to require a certain a- 

 mount of cold, for they leave us as soon 

 as the weather becomes warmer. April 

 is the kinglets month; when the war- 

 blers begin to overtake them, in May, 

 they move north-ward for the season. 



When summer begins to wane, it is 

 time to look for their return. The birds 

 are quite gregarious and appear in 

 flocks; you go out some morning, late 

 in summer, and find the woods full of 

 flitting forms. It seems as if the gloomy 

 pines had suddenly blossomed, with a 

 tiny bird sv\finging on every spray. The 

 coniferous woods are the birds favorite 

 haunts though they visit other forest 

 trees as well. 



The call of the kinglet is often the 

 first intimation that the bird is near 

 and then one often has to watch the top 

 of some tall pine for many minutes for 

 a sight of the elfin crew. The call is a 

 peculiar sibilant whistle, somewhat re- 

 sembling the call of the chickadee, fine 

 and bead-like, though more prolonged — 

 a string of beads and each one audible, 

 though your ear must be quick to catch 

 them all, perhaps. 



Late in autumn the birds become bold- 

 er and make excursions to the orchards 

 and the trees along our city streets. 

 One day in October, I came upon a flock 

 of kinglets, in company with several 

 chickadees, feeding in a clump of tall 

 goldenrods near a wood. They seemed 

 as much at home swinging on the weeds 

 as if in the treetops. 



• In April the ruby-crown has a charm- 

 ing song which mere words cannot des- 

 cribe. It must be heard in the early 

 morning — with the dew on it, as it were 



— to be fully appreciated. It is a clear 

 whistle, much louder than one would 

 expect from the size of the bird, and 

 wanders up and down the scale seem- 

 ingly without definite bounds; yet it is a 

 regular song and would be easy to rep- 

 resent on the stafl:, if one could catch 

 and fix the short notes in the middle of 

 it. The bii'd apparently cares little for 

 its song, being usually hard at work 

 while delivering it, often flitting about 

 from limb to limb or bobbing in or out 

 of some brush heap. 



The older ornithologists classed the 

 kinglets with the wrens, and even in 

 our own day the golden-crown is some- 

 times called the golden-crested wren. 

 There is much that is wren-like in their 

 habits. An attentive observer may 

 occasionally hear them give a querulous 

 call that seems to connect them with 

 this family. " Rit tat," they say, for 

 all the world like the house wren. 



PROTOCOCCUS VIRIDIS. 



C. H. EHRENFELD, MEMBER OF THE GRAY 

 MEMORIAL BOTANICAL CHAPTER. 



In working in several chemical lab- 

 oratories I have noticed that the re agent 

 bottles containing solutions of magnes- 

 ium sulphate after standing some time 

 almost invariably have a green deposit 

 collected on the bottom. Inquiry led to 

 the fact that this had been noticed by 

 others, but none knew what it was. A 

 short time ago I made a microscopic 

 examination and found that the green 

 substance was vegetable matter, uni- 

 cellar in structure and very much re- 

 sembled Protococcus viridis, though I 

 am not prepared to say positively that 

 it is that plant. 



The most interesting question that 

 arose in my mind was, why should this 

 growth occur in only one re agent and all 

 the other chemicals be free from it ? I 

 have heard no satisfactory answer to 

 this question. 



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