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 tsee, 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.— Gowen-crowned 



_ , _ , ., , , , . Kinglet, natural size. 



largely on bark beetles, scale insects, 



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 Dec. 25, 1905, 1 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 



