NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 493 



distinctly pensile nest. Tlie third is different from either of the others in position. 

 Placed nearly midway between two stout branches, which in reality are forks of the 

 same branch, one above the other, arid attached by the sides aiid upper edges to the 

 twigs which depend from the branch above, while its bottom rests firmly on a brist- 

 ling platform of stems which rise from the branch below. Thus it is at once pensile 

 and non-pensile. The material used in the construction of these nests on the exterior 

 is chiefly green mosses, diversified with grayish lichens and usnea, the whole re- 

 sembling the general color of the surrounding foliage. The interior at the bottoni 

 Is lined with delicate strips of soft inner bark and fine black rootlets. Near the top 

 are rather numerous feathers of the Ruined Grouse, Red Crossbill, Hermit Thrush, 

 and bvenbird, arranged with the points of the quills down, the tips rising to or 

 slightly above the rim, and arching inward over the cavity, forming a screen that 

 partially concealed the eggs. In both nests, the space being too small for the accom- 

 modation of the numerous eggs, they were piled in two layers, one above the other. 

 In the first nest the number in each layer was equal, but in the second five eggs were 

 in the lower layer and four in the upper. All of these nests were found by watching 

 the birds building; and, taking into consideration the dim light of dense spruce 

 woods, the torture one must endure from mosquitoes while watching the erratic and 

 puzzling movements of the birds flying from branch to branch with their bills filled 

 with material, the rapidity and unaccountable way in which the substance was often 

 deposited in the clusters of dense foliage, made it a very diflScult and tedious task to 

 locate the nest in the many similar dark clusters In the spruces.* The eggs vary from 

 creamy-white to exceedingly deep, often somewhat muddy, cream color, sprinkled 

 with numerous markings of pale wood-brown, varying from small dots to blotches. 

 Three specimens are described by Mr. Brewster as having spots and blotches of faint 

 lavender. The markings of most of the specimens are distributed pretty thickly 

 over the entire shell, but in nearly all they are most numerous about the larger 

 ends, where they form a more or less distinct wreath. The sizes of Set A, nine eggs, 

 are .56x.44, .57x.44, .55x.42, .57x.43, .57X.44, .56x.45, .57x.44, .57x.44. 



748a. WESTEBW GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. Regulus satrapa oUvaceus 

 Baird. Geog. Dist.— Pacific coast region from California to Sitka. 



The nesting and eggs of this Pacific coast form of Golden-crowned Kinglet are 

 similar to those of R. satrapa. 



749. RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. Regulus calendula (Linn.) Geog. Dist. — 

 Entire North America, breeding from the northern border and higher mountains of 

 the United States northward. Winters in more Southern United States and south- 

 ward to Northern Central America. 



The Ruby-crowned Kinglet breeds from the extreme northern border and higher 

 mountains of the United States northward. Mr. W. E. D. Scott took a nest contain- 

 ing five eggs on June 25, at Twin Lakes, Colorado. The nest was suspended to the 

 leaves of the uttermost twigs of a pine tree, much like a Vireo's nest, and about 

 twelve feet from the ground. Mr. Frank M. Drew states that in San Juan coUnty, 



* Mr. Brewster says that in her flights after building material the female went a 

 distance of a hundred yards or more, but oftener she confined her quest to the trees within 

 a radius of fifty yards or less of the one which concealed the nest. She was invariably 

 followed closely by the male, who, however, did not assist her in any way other than by 

 singing almost incessantly In an undertone. In the' case of the nests discovered, the 

 males' singing was the characteristic performance which attracted attention to' the spot 

 where the female was at worlc. 



