342 



Brewster oh the Golden-crested Kinglet. 



[October 



number of eggs in the two layers was not noted. In the second 

 there were five eggs in the lower and four in the upper layer. 



All these nests were found by watching the birds while build- 

 ing, a task of no slight difficulty in dense spruce woods where 

 the li<yht was dim, even at noonday, and mosquitoes were so nu- 

 merous as to make it torture to remain still for any considerable 

 length of time. Moreover, the movements of the little architect 

 were erratic and puzzling to the last degree. One moment flut- 

 tering at the end of a branch, her bill filled with a mass of build- 

 in<^ material, or tugging at the loose end of a shred of bark or 

 moss, the next hidden from sight among the dense spruce foliage, 

 now flitting rapidly from tree to tree, again dashing back and 

 forth between two adjoining trees, the female would often appear 

 and disappear a dozen times and at as many different places in 

 the course of a minute or two. The chief difliculty, of course, 

 was to make out just when and where she deposited her burden, 

 which often vanished in the most unaccountable way. We 

 finally found that her almost invariable custom was to approach 

 the nest by short flights and devious courses, and upon reaching 

 it dash in. deposit and arrange her load in from t-wo to four sec- 

 onds., and at once dart oft' in search of more. When it is consid- 

 ered that the nest, even at a distance of only a few yards, was 

 indistinguishable from hundreds of dai-k clusters in its own and 

 neighboring trees, and that the bird during her flights to and 

 from it often entered and remained quite as long within several 

 of these clusters as in the nest itself, the difficulties of the case 

 will be better understood. As a matter of fact we did not in a 

 single instance settle the exact position of the prize until we 

 had watched the birds for several hours and spent much fruitless 

 time in climbing to the deceptive clusters already mentioned. 



In her flights after building material the female sometimes 

 went a distance of a hundred yards or more, but oftener she con- 

 fined her quest to the trees within a radius of fifty yards or less 

 of the one which concealed the nest. She was invariably fol- 

 lowed closely by the male who, however, did not assist her in 

 any way other than by singing almost incessantly, in an under- 

 tone. In the case of the three nests which we took, and a fourth 

 which we must have been very near to but did not find, the 

 males in every instance first attracted us to the spot where their 

 mates were at work by this peculiar, subdued song. It was often 



iSSS.J 



Brewster on the Golden-crested Kinglet. 



343 



repeated almost incessantly dozens of times in succession. 

 Should it prove to be, as seems probable, an invariable and char- 

 acteristic accompaniment to the operation of nest-building its 

 value as a clue to the neighborhood of the nest and the presence 

 of the female is worth bearing in mind. Besides the song* both 

 birds uttered frequently a low ti, ti, ti which seemed to serve as 

 a call to indicate one another's presence or position. 



In each instance the sitting female left her eggs as soon as the 

 movements of the climber began to shake the tree, but when he 

 neared the nest she with her mate showed the utmost anxiety and 

 boldness, approaching within a few feet of his head and uttering 

 the tzee-tzee-tzee note incessantly. 



To conclude, the nests above described are, I believe, the 

 first that have ever been taken in Massachusetts, although my 

 finding the brood of young birds at Winchendon in 1887 was, of 

 course, prior and equally conclusive proof that the species breeds 

 within our limits. That it breeds regularly at Winchendon is 

 highly probable, but, as already stated, there are reasons for 

 doubting that it is always as common there as it was in 1888. 

 About July I of this latter year, it was discovered by Mr. Faxon 

 in considerable numbers, and unquestionably breeding, on the 

 northern side of Mt. Graylock in Berkshire County where I 

 searched for it vainly in 1885 although, to be sure, I did not 

 visit the particular part of that mountain where it has since been 

 found. Hence my failure to meet with it affords no proof of its 

 absence or even rarity there in 18S5. Nevertheless I cannot 

 help thinking that the number of birds which nested the past 

 season in both Berkshire and Worcester Counties may have been 

 exceptional. 



Another point worth considering is the approximate date at 

 which this Kinglet may be assumed to nest. The fact that the 

 nest found by Mr. Minotf among the White Mountains of New 

 Hampshire in 1876 contained young as late as July 16, taken in 

 connection with my observations in 1888, would seem to indi- 

 cate that the bird is a late breeder and that somewhere between 



* This begins with a succession of five or six fine, shrill, high-pitched, somewhat 

 faltering notes and ends with a short, rapid, rather explosive warble. The opening 

 notes are given in a rising key but the song falls rapidly at the end. The whole may 

 be expressed as follows : tzee, tzee, tzee, tzee, ti, ti, ier-ti-ti-ti-ti. 



t Land and Game Birds of New England, p. 56. 



