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. RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. — Regulus calendula. 

 Family : The Kinglets, Gnatcatchers, etc. 



Length: 4.00-5.00. 



Adult 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. 



