TWO LITTLE KINGS 3 



ingly quick and graceful in their motions. Both 

 species are of a prevailing greenish or olive shade, 

 with noticeable light-colored wing-bars, and light, 

 unstreaked, unspotted under parts. 



The ruby-crown is famous as a singer. A 

 genuine music-box, we may call* him. In spring, 

 especially, he is often bubbling over with melody ; 

 a rapid, wren-like tune, with sundry quirks and 

 turns that are all his own; on the whole de- 

 cidedly original, with plenty of what musical 

 people call accent and a strongly marked rhythm 

 or swing. Ovjer and over he goes with it, as if 

 he could never have enough; beginning with 

 quick, separate, almost guttural notes, and wind- 

 ing up with a twittity, twittity, twittity, which, 

 once heard, is not likely to be soon forgotten. 



A very pleasing vocalist he surely is; and 

 when his extreme smallness is taken into account 

 he is fairly to be esteemed a musical prodigy. 

 Every one who has written about the song, from 

 Audubon down, has found it hard to say enough 

 about it. Audubon goes so far as to say that it 

 is as powerful as a canary's, and much more 

 varied and pleasing. That I must think an ex- 

 aggeration ; natural enough, no doubt, under the 

 circumstances (romantic surroundings count for 

 a good deal in all questions of this kind), but 

 still a stretching of the truth. However, I give 



