SONG BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 161 
and limbs, like the Creepers and Titmice, but they have all 
the skill of the Warblers in searching the foliage, and they 
are also such excellent flycatchers that it is difficult for the 
smallest and swiftest insects to escape them. The Ruby- 
crowned Kinglet is a mere migrant through the State in fall 
and spring, but the Golden-crowned Kinglet may be found 
in our woods, orchards, or shade trees not only in fall and 
in spring but during the winter, and it breeds in northern 
Worcester County and in Berkshire County. 
Golden-crowned Kinglet. 
: Regulus satrapa. 
Length. — About four inches. 
Adult Male. — Above, gray and olive-green mainly, with yellowish-olive show- 
ing decidedly on wings and tail; a bright, glossy orange crown spot, edged 
with yellow, fronted and bordered on the sides by a black streak, which also 
is bordered by a whitish streak, above the eye; below, dull grayish-white. 
Adult Female. —Like male, but lacking the orange center of the crown patch, 
which is replaced by yellow. 
Nest. — A ball of moss, feathers, etc., in an evergreen tree. 
Eggs. — Numerous, white, thickly but faintly speckled with buffy spots. 
Season. — Resident in some localities, but usually seen between September and 
April. 
The Golden-crowned Kinglet probably does not breed in 
Massachusetts except where the Canadian flora is found on 
some of the higher lands of the central and western sections. 
Its note, as commonly heard, is a weak 
chirp or a fine ¢see, tsee, tsee. Its song 
I cannot attempt to describe. 
Unfortunately, no careful study of 
its food habits has ever been made, 
but it is said to be almost entirely 
insectivorous. It is believed to feed Fig. 48.—Golden-crowned 
largely on bark beetles, scale insects, Ate ep ee) Sat 
and the eggs of injurious moths and plant lice. 
Kinglets are particularly serviceable in woodlands, espe- 
cially among the coniferous trees in which they dwell. At 
Wareham, on Dee. 25, 1905, I watched the Gold-crest hunt- 
ing its insect food amid the pines. The birds were flutter- 
ing about among the trees. Each one would hover for a 
moment before a tuft of pine “needles,” and then either 
alight upon it and feed, or pass on to another. I examined 
