ISSUED IN BEHALF OF THE SCIENCE WHICH IT ADVOCATES. 



Volume II, 



JANUARY, 1877. 



Number 11: 



Our Present Knowledge of the 



Nidification of the American 



Kinglets. 



^ 



HE following article by Ernest Inger- 

 soll, is taken fi*om a recent number 

 of the Nuttall Oruitliolog leal Bul- 

 letin: 



In the hope of eliciting from some of the 

 many readers of I'he Bulletin further in- 

 formation concerning the breeding habits 

 of the American Kinglets, or at least put- 

 ting them upon the alert for further informa- 

 tion, I have deemed it well to bring togeth- 

 er what is at present known respecting the 

 nidification of these birds. 



Of the breeding of the Ruby-crowned 

 Kinglet {Regulus calenduluii) , not much 

 is known, although the bird is found at dif- 

 ferent seasons in all parts of North Ameri- 

 ca. In the Rocky Mountains it breeds a- 

 mong the most elevated forests. Mr. J. A. 

 Allen found young in July near Mt. Lincoln, 

 Col. ; Mr. Ridgway gives it as breeding 

 among the peaks of Northern Utah ; and 

 Mr. Henshaw in Arizona. It is also sup- 

 posed to breed in Northern New Jersey, 

 in "Western New York, in Maine, and in 

 the islands of the Bay of Fundy. In West- 

 ern New York a nest which contained young 

 was reported to have been built in the fork 



of a tree. Males and females have both 

 been observed in summer about Chestnut 

 Hill, Philadelphia, and Mr. Gentry thinks 

 it nests on the wooded heights along the 

 Wissahickon. Dr. Coues in his "Birds of 

 the Northwest" considers that he has suf- 

 ficient evidence to show a breeding range 

 throughout the mountains of the west from. 

 9,000 feet upward, thence breeding east- 

 ward along the northern boundary of the 

 United States to Maine and Labrador, and 

 probably sending a spur southward along 

 the Alleghany Mountains. Northwestward 

 it reaches Alaska. 



The most satisfactory information is fur- 

 nished by Mr. J. H. Batty, who found a 

 nest near the Buffalo Mountains in Colora- 

 do, on June 21st, 1873, which contained' 

 five young and one egg. 1'he nest was on 

 the branch of a spruce tree, about fifteen 

 feet from the ground, and was so large 

 ' ' that it could scarcely be got into a good 

 sized coffee cup." It is described as "a 

 loosely woven mass of hair and feathers, 

 mixed with moss and some short bits of 

 straw." The egg, Mr. Batty tells me^ was 

 very much like that of the common House 

 Wren, but a little lighter in color. Both 

 parents were assiduously bringing larvag of 

 insects to the young, whose appetites were 

 unappeasable. Mr Henry W. Henshaw 

 also reports finding a neatly finished nest 

 on- a mountain near Fort Garland, Col. It 



