704 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult male: Most of the upper parts olive or grayish olive, brighter on the rump, 
crown with a central patch or stripe of brilliant flame-color, or orange, on either side of 
which is a stripe of clear bright yellow, bounded on the outside by a stripe of black; a 
white line over the eye; two white wing bars, and most of the wing and tail-feathers edged 
with yellowish white; under parts uniform grayish white. The adult female is almost 
precisely similar, except that the bright crown patch is yellow without the central orange 
stripe. The young of the year show neither yellow nor red on the crown, and often little 
or no trace of the black stripes. 
Length 3.15 to 4.50 inches; wing 2.10 to 2.25; tail, 1.60 to 2. 
317. Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Regulus calendula calendula (Linn.). (749) 
Synonyms: Ruby-crowned Wren, Ruby-crown.—Motacilla calendula, Linn., 1766, 
and most authors.—Sylvia calendula, Wils., 1808. 
Similar to the Golden-crowned Kinglet except for the crown, which in 
the adult male is plain olive-green with a dash of ruby-red or scarlet vermil- 
ion, without any stripes of black or white. Young birds and adult females 
have the crown plain and can be separated from young Golden-crowns 
only by the expert. 
Distribution.—North America, south to Guatemala, north to the Arctic 
coast, breeding chiefly north of the United States, and in the Rocky 
Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and the mountains of Arizona. 
This beautiful little Kinglet is universally distributed throughout the 
state as a spring and autumn migrant, but probably is not found within 
our limits during the nesting season. It differs from the Golden-crowned 
Kinglet in that it appears to be strictly a migrant, not even a single in- 
dividual lingering here through the winter. It arrives from the south 
in April and may linger for several weeks, departing for the north by the 
middle of May and returning in September and October. Before the 
first of November the last seem to have moved south. The only spring 
record from a lighthouse is that of an individual killed on Spectacle Reef 
Light May 5, 1889. One struck Big Sable Light, Lake Superior, October 
7, 1893 and one Pt. Aux Barques Light, Lake Huron, October 17, 1890. 
It appears to be much more common in spring than in fall, yet this is 
probably due to the fact that it is much more musical in spring and its 
movements cover a shorter time so that the birds are concentrated and 
more conspicuous. 
The ordinary note while migrating is a high pitched ‘‘tsee” repeated 
two or three times, but frequently the bird utters snatches of its summer 
song, which is a rich, varied warble, interspersed with clear whistles, the 
whole being remarkably loud for so small a bird. It frequently appears 
in considerable numbers late in April, and not infrequently twenty or 
thirty individuals may be found in company flitting restlessly about among 
the bare twigs, calling loudly to each other and moving rapidly from tree 
to tree. At this time, as always, they are feeding exclusively on insects 
and their eggs and thus doing an immense amount of good. 
The species is not readily distinguished from the other Kinglet unless 
it happens to hang head downward or expose the ruby color of the crown. 
In the autumn the two species sometimes occur together and then birds 
of the year are practically indistinguishable. 
The nest and eggs of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet are not separable with 
certainty from those of the Golden-crown, but while the latter bird in all 
