OUR PRESENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE NIDIEICATION OF 

 THE AMERICAN KINGLETS. 



BY ERNEST INGERSOLL. 



In the hope of eliciting from some of the many readers of The 

 Bulletin further information concerning the breeding habits of the 

 American Kinglets, or at least of putting them upon the alert for 

 further information, I have deemed it well to bring together what 

 is at present known respecting the nidifioation of these birds. 



Of the breeding of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet [Regulus calendula, 

 Licht.) not much is known, although the bird is found, at different 

 seasons, in all parts of North America. In the Rocky Mountains 

 it breeds among the most elevated forests. Mr. J. A. Allen found 

 young in July near Mount Lincoln, Col.; Mr. Ridgway gives it as 

 breeding among the peaks of Northern Utah ; and Mr. Henshaw in 

 Arizona. It is also supposed to breed in Northern New Jersey, in 

 Western New York, in Maine, and in the islands of the Bay of 

 Fundy. In Western New York a nest which contained young was 

 reported to have been built in the fork of a tree. Males and 

 females have both been observed in summer about Chestnut Hill, 

 Philadelphia, and Mr. Gentry thinks it nests on the wooded heighta 

 along the Wissahickon. Dr. Coues, in his " Birds of the North- 

 west," considers that he has sufficient evidence to show a breeding- 

 range throughout the mountains of the West, from nine thousand 

 feet upward, thence trending eastward along the northern boundary 

 of the United States to Maine and Labrador, and probably sending 

 a spur southward along the Alleghany Mountains. Northwestward 

 it reaches Alaska. 



The most satisfactory information is furnished by Mr. J. H. Batty, 

 who found a nest near the Buffalo Mountains in Colorado, on June 

 21, 1873, which contained five young and one egg. The nest was 

 on the branch of a spruce-tree, about fifteen feet from the ground, 

 and was so large " that it could scarcely be got into a good-sized 

 coffee-cup." It is described as " a loosely woven mass of hair and 

 feathers, mixed with moss and some short bits of straw." The egg, 

 Mr. Batty tells me, was very much like that of the common House 

 Wren, but a Httle lighter in color. Both parents were assiduously 

 bringing larvse of insects to the young, whose appetites were \m- 

 appeasable. Mr. Henry W. Henshaw also reports finding a neatly 

 finished nest on a mountain near Fort Garland, Col. It was built 

 on a low branch of a pine, and the male was singing directly over- 

 head ; but although he waited some time, Mr. Henshaw did not see 

 the female. " The nest was a somewhat bulky structure, very large 

 for the size of the bird, externally composed of strips of bark, and 

 lined thickly with feathers of the Grouse." Of the eggs of this 

 Kinglet nothing further is known. 



Bull. N.O.C. I, Nov, 187Q.P. IT I^- 



