98 RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. 
extremity. nearly touching the shaft, but basally, diverging more and more until at the tail-coverts it 
is confined to a scarcely appreciable edging; no light color on any of the outer rectrices. Throat and 
upper parts of the breast, with sides of head, neck, and body, dull but decided ash, with a faint wash of 
brownish-fulvous on the tips of the feathers. Along the central portion of the body beneath this wash 
becomes clear fulvous, which is deepest in tint on the abdomen, crissum, and under tail-coverts. Lining 
of wings very pale pearl-gray. 
“Length, 4.50; extent, 6.10; wing, 1.84; tail, 1.80 in.” (W. Brewster.) 
RuBY-CROWNED KINGLET. 
Regulus calendula LicurT. 
N AUTUMN, when the trees and shrubs of our woods don their brilliant colors, one 
who observes attentively the birds migrating southward, will soon discover among 
their numbers the lively, fairy-like RuBy-cRowNED KINGLET. Usually it arrives in the 
Northern States from its more northern breeding-habitat late in September, or early in 
October. During a few weeks it is a very abundant bird in woodland and garden, 
making itself conspicuous by its fearlessness and activity. Toward the end of 
October, or the beginning of November, I have observed these birds in great numbers in 
south-eastern Texas. The majority migrated further south, but many remained during 
the whole winter. They kept together in small companies, preferring the pine-wodds. 
During the cold ‘‘northers” they frequently visited the beautiful gardens of Houston, 
where they looked for insects among the evergreen live-oaks, the loquats, and other 
trees and shrubs. Though in the fall they often linger for weeks in the same locality, 
they do not tarry so long in spring. They arrive in northern Illinois from the South 
about the middle of April, and a few stragglers are even seen in early May. In south- 
ern Texas I saw none after March 10th. During their migration they abound on the 
bushy edges of woods, in orchards, and especially in such parks and gardens as contain 
coniferous trees. Here these charming, always cheerful little minstrels of the trees and 
shrubs, confiding and fearless in the highest degree, present a picture of beauty and 
attractive activity. ‘To observe the manners of the Ruby-crown, one need only repair, 
at the right season, to the nearest thicket, coppice, or piece of shrubbery, such as the 
Titmice, Yellow-rumps, and other Warblers love to haunt. These are its favorite resorts, 
especially in the fall and winter; though sometimes, in the spring more particularly, it 
seems to be more ambitious, and its slight form may be almost lost among the 
branchlets of the taller trees, where the equally diminutive Parula Warbler is most at 
home. We shall most likely find it not alone, but in straggling troops, which keep up 
a sort of companionship with each other, as well as with different birds, though each 
individual seems to be absorbed in its particular business. We hear the slender wiry note, 
and see the little creatures skipping nimbly about the smaller branches in endlessly various 
attitudes, peering in the crevices of the bark for their minute insect food, taking short 
nervous flights from one bough to another, twitching their wings as they alight, and 
always too busy to pay attention to what may be going on around them. They 
