54 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
having ever been discovered. They are probably like those of 
allied British species, and of the- Golden-crowned “Wren” 
(B, b). 
(c). The little Ruby-crowned “ Wrens,” almost the smallest 
of North American birds, with the exception of the humming- 
birds, habitually pass the summer in the countries, which lie to 
the northward of New England. They reach the neighbor- 
hood of Boston, when traveling from the North, in the first or 
second week of October, and are quite common throughout 
that month, a few lingering until the middle of November, and 
still fewer occasionally passing the winter here. In autumn, 
regardless of the cold frosts, they always seem to be happily 
employed, either in pairs or singly, in ransacking trees in 
woods or orchards and elsewhere, for the small insects and 
eggs, which lie concealed beneath the bark, and in its crevices. 
They can but rarely be detected here in winter, since they com- 
monly spend that season in the indefinite ‘‘ South.” In spring 
they generally return to us about the middle of April, and are 
very common until the middle of May or earlier, when they 
totally disappear. They may be found in orchards or wood- 
land, and about cultivated estates, everywhere leading the 
same busy, restless life, which they never for a moment for- 
sake, while daylight lasts. They may be seen now clinging 
to some cluster of opening leaves or budding flowers, perhaps 
head downwards, now hopping to a neighboring twig, now fly- 
ing into the air to dexterously seize a passing insect, then 
calling to their mates if they be near, or uttering their sweet 
and joyous song. Though not gregarious, they are of a soci- 
able disposition toward other birds, and in fall often associate 
with Chickadees, nuthatches, creepers, ‘‘ Gold-crests,” and 
Downy Woodpeckers, and in spring with various migrating 
warblers, if there be any to join, whose habits are at all like 
11 Wilson, however, says: ‘ From the circumstance of having found them here 
in summer, I am persuaded that they occasionally breed in Pennsylvania.” Mr. 
Charles C. Abbott, in speaking of their breeding in New Jersey, says that “at least 
we have as evidence of this their presence in June, and also that of their young 
in August.” 
