Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds 



its surroundings that one may look long and thoroughly before 

 discovering it. Two infinitesimal, white eggs tax the nest ac- 

 commodation to its utmost. 



In the mating season the female may be seen perching — a 

 posture one rarely catches her gay lover in — preening her dainty 

 but sombre feathers with ladylike nicety. The young birds do a 

 great deal of perching before they gain the marvellously rapid 

 wing-motions of maturity, but they are ready to fly within a 

 week after they are hatched. By the time the trumpet-vine is in 

 bloom they dart and sip and utter a shrill little squeak among the 

 flowers, in company with the old birds. 



During the nest-building and incubation the male bird keeps 

 so aggressively on the defensive that he often betrays to a hitherto 

 unsuspecting intruder the location of his home. After the young 

 birds have to be fed he is most diligent in collecting food, that 

 consists not alone of the sweet juices of flowers, as is popularly 

 supposed, but "also of aphides and plant-hce that his proboscis-like 

 tongue licks off the garden foliage literally like a streak of lightning. 



Both parents feed the young by regurgitation — a process 

 disgusting to the human observer, whose stomach involuntarily 

 revolts at the sight so welcome to the tiny, squeaking, hungry 

 birds. 



Ruby-crowned Kinglet 



(Regulus calendula) Kinglet family 



Called also: RUBY-CROWNED WREN; RUBY-CROWNED 



WARBLER 



Length — ^4.25 to 4.5 inches. About two inches smaller than the 



English sparrow. 

 Male — Upper parts grayish olive-green, brighter nearer the tail ; 



wings and tail dusky, edged with yellowish olive. Two 



whitish wing-bars. Breast and underneath light yellowish 



gray. In the adult male a vermilion spot on crown of his 



ash-gray head. 

 Female — Similar, but without the vermilion crest. 

 Range — North America. Breeds from northern United States 



northward. Winters from southern limits of its breeding 



range to Central America and Mexico. 

 Migrations — October. April. Rarely a winter resident at the 



North. Most common during its migrations. 



172 



