The Kinglets 
135 
In both nests the eggs were too numerous to find room on the bottom 
of the nest, and were piled in two layers. [Incidentally, it would be in- 
teresting to know how the little birds manage to turn these nine or ten 
eggs so as to secure equable heat.] 
“These nests were found by watching the birds while building; a 
task of no little difficulty in dense spruce woods where the light was 
dim, even at noonday. Moreover, the movements of this little architect 
were erratic and puzzling to the last degree . . We finally found that 
her almost invariable custom was to approach the nest by short flights 
and devious courses, and, upon reaching it, to dash in, deposit and ar- 
range her load in from two to four seconds and at once dart off in search 
for more.” 
You may expect to see the Golden-crown in the Middle and Eastern 
States almost any time after September 20 until Christ- 
mas, then sparingly until the middle of March, when Migration 
the return of those who have roved farther south be- 
gins. By the first of May, at the latest, all will have passed northward 
to their summer home. 
I have many times seen them about my feeding-tree, where they hang 
upside down upon the lumps of suet with all the agility of Chickadees; 
while on one occasion, a Winter Wren, a Brown Creeper, and the 
Kinglet, all occupied characteristic positions upon the same lump of suet, 
feasting and chatting, as it seemed, in perfect harmony. This goes to 
prove that the remoter birds may be encouraged to stay about habitations 
if only proper food is within reach; while suet in large lumps, securely 
fastened so that birds may perch on it and peck at it as they would in 
quarrying insects and grubs from under bark, is the food universal for 
all insect-eaters. 
Ways of the 
Ruby-crown 
The public role of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet is that of a songster 
pure and simple, though he is as industrious in his search for food as 
his little brother, and as clever at nest-building in the mountain fastnesses, 
sometimes at a height of nearly 8,000 feet ; in fact, this nesting of the 
Ruby-crown is conducted with such secrecy that we have but few and 
meager descriptions of it. Unlike his brother, we see 
the Ruby-crown in a brief interval between middle 
April and May, and again for a month in late Septem- 
ber and October. During both migrations, they are birds of the same class 
of thickets that warblers love. 
The late Doctor Coues gives us one of the best descriptions of the 
ways of this Kinglet. He says : 
“To observe the manner of the Ruby-crown one need only repair at 
the right season to the nearest thicket, coppice, or piece of shrubbery. 
These are its favorite resorts, especially in fall and winter ; though some- 
times, in the spring more particularly, it seems to be more ambitious, 
and its slight form may be almost lost among the branchlets of the taller 
