The Ruby-crowned Kinglets 
No. 156 
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 
A. O. U. No. 749. Corthylio calendula calendula Linnseus. 
Description. — Adult male: Above olive-green, duller anteriorly, brightening to 
greenish yellow on edgings of quills and tail-feathers; a partly concealed crest of scarlet 
(scarlet to grenadine red; in younger specimens peach-red to grenadine); two narrow 
whitish wing-bars formed by tips of middle and greater coverts; some whitish edging on 
tertials; a dusky interval separating greenish yellow edges on outer webs of secondaries; 
a whitish eye-ring and whitish skirtings around base of bill; underparts soiled white, 
heavily tinged with buffy and olivaceous-buff. Fall and winter birds are more strongly 
tinged with olivaceous. Adult female and immature: Similar, but without crown-patch. 
Length 101.6-114.3 (4.00-4.50); wing 59.2 (2.33); tail 43.7 (1.72); bill from nostril 
6.4 (.25). 
Recognition Marks. —Pygmy size; scarlet crest distinctive. Note wing-bars 
and whitish eye-ring of female and young. Lighter than C. c. grinnelli. Smaller and 
more olivaceous than C. c. cineraceus. 
Nesting. —Does not breed in California—as in next form. 
Remarks. —Whether or not the breeding birds of California, especially of 
southern California, are separable from those of the East, C. c. calendula , it is certain 
that vast numbers of an intermediate form, infra grinnelli , and indistinguishable from 
eastern specimens, coming presumably from Oregon and Washington, are present with 
us in winter and during migrations. It is equally certain that a grayer, “better,” 
cineraceous bird is to be found in winter, notably in the Colorado River valley. Where 
this Ash} 7 Kinglet breeds, or whether, indeed, we may not have two ashy forms, one 
from the southern Sierras and one from the northern interior, is not yet satisfactorily 
determined. I assume that C. c. quasi-calendula is extra limital in summer. 
Range of Corthylio calendula. —North America, breeding in Boreal zones north 
of the United States, and in the mountains of the West south to New Mexico, Arizona, 
and California, and on Guadalupe Island. Winters south to highlands of Mexico and 
Guatemala. 
Range of C. c. calendula. —As above, excluding the northwest humid coastal 
strip north of Washington ( grinnelli ) an undefined area of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 
the Great Basin region and its northern Upper Sonoran extension (cineraceus). and 
Guadalupe Island ( obscurus ). 
Distribution in California. —Theoretically, the common winter bird of the 
lower levels, especially of the west-central and southwestern portions. 
Authorities. — Gambel ( Regains calendula), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. 
iii., 1846, p. 115 (Calif.); Anthony, Auk, vol. xii., 1895, p. 181 (albino; San Diego); 
Grinnell, Condor, vol. vi., 1904, p. 25 (orig. desc.; type locality, Mt. Wilson, Los Angeles 
Co.); Ray, Condor, vol. xii., 1910, p. 130, fig. (desc. and photo of nest; Sierra Nevada); 
Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Chronicle, Oct., 1921, p. 394 (manner of seeking food). 
No. 156a Ashy Kinglet 
A. O. U. No. 749, part. Corthylio calendula cineraceus Grinnell. 
Synonym.— Western Ruby-crowned Kinglet. 
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