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AMERICAN GOLDEN-CRESTED KINGLET, 
Regulus Satrapa, Lichtenstein. 
PLATE CXXXIL— Male and Female. 
This active little bird breeds in Labrador, where I saw it feeding its young 
in August, when the species appeared already moving southward ; but 
although it was common there and in Newfoundland, as was the Ruby- 
crowned Kinglet, we did not succeed in our search for its nest. It enters 
the United States late in September, and continues its journey beyond their 
limits, as I have met with it on the borders of our most Southern Districts 
during winter. Individuals remain in all the Southern and Western States 
the whole of that season, and leave them again about the beginning of 
March . 
They generally associate in groups, composed each of a whole family, and 
feed in company with the Titmice, Nuthatches, and Brown Creepers, 
perambulating the tops of trees and bushes, sometimes in the very depth of 
the forests or the most dismal swamps, while at other times they approach 
the plantations, and enter the gardens and yards. Their movements are 
always extremely lively and playful. They follow minute insects on the 
wing, seize them among the leaves of the pines, or search for the larvae in 
the chinks of the branches. Like the Titmice they are seen hanging to the 
extremities of twigs and bunches of leaves, sometimes fluttering in the air 
in front of them, and are unceasingly occupied. They have no song at this 
season, but merely emit now and then a low screep. 
On the 23d of January, while in company with my friend John Bachman, 
I saw great numbers of them in the woods near Charleston, searching for 
food high in the trees as well as low down, and so careless of us, that 
although we would approach within a few feet of them, they were not in 
the least disconcerted. Their feeble chirp was constantly repeated. We 
killed a great number of them in hopes of finding among them some 
individuals of the species known under the name of Regulus ignicapillus, 
but in this we did not succeed. At times they uttered a strong querulous 
note, somewhat resembling that of the Black-headed Titmouse. The young 
had acquired their full plumage, but the females w r ere more abundant than 
the males. At this season the yellow spot on their head is less conspicuous 
than towards spring, when they raise their crest feathers while courting. 
Vol. II. 29 
