GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, AND OLIVE 459 



and frolics through the oaks in flocks, busily search- 

 ing under every leaf for insect food. It is quite a dif- 

 ferent matter in the high forests of the Sierra Nevada 

 where he goes to rear his brood. There he is shyest of . 

 the shy, keeping mysteriously in the tops of the tall firs 

 and giving you only a tantalizing glimpse now and then. 

 One female that I watched, or tried to watch, was evi- 

 dently constructing a nest, for she could be seen flutter- 

 ing about with her bill filled with nesting material of 

 some sort, and carrying it always to the same tall spruce 

 with a comical air of business. On all these trips she 

 was accompanied by the male, who came and went with 

 her, but never, that I could see, brought any load him- 

 self. Whenever she dropped down to where she was 

 building her nest among the thick branches, her mate 

 perched higher in the same tree and warbled in con- 

 tinuous low, sweet song, every now and then dart- 

 ing out, flycatcher fashion, after an insect — which he 

 greedily ate. The song opened with a high-keyed, clear 

 crescendo in tone and volume, diminishing rapidly as it 

 ran down the scale, and was repeated over and over 

 without much variation, like the song of a canary. 



749 (part). WESTERN RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. 

 Regulus calendula cineraceus. 



Family : The Kinglets, Gnatcatchers, etc. 



Length: 4.00-5.00. 



JduU Male : Bright crimson crown patch, more or less concealed ; upper 



parts grayish olive, greener on rump ; two narrow white wing-bars ; 



under parts grayish white, sometimes tinged with greenish. 

 Adult Female, and Young: Similar, hut lacking the crimson crown 



patch. 



