RUBY-CROWNED WREN. 
415 
RUBY-CROWNED WREN. 
( Regulus calendulus, Stephens, Bonap. Sylvia calendula , Wilson, i. 
p. 83. pi. 5. fig. 3. ’ Phil. Museum, No. 7244.) 
Sp. Charact. — Olivaceous; beneath whitish; crown vermilion, 
and without the black margin. 
This beautiful little species passes the summer and 
breeding season in the colder parts of the North-Ameri- 
can continent, penetrating even to the dreary coasts of 
Greenland, where, as well as around Hudson’s Bay, 
they probably rear their young in solitude, and obtain 
abundance of the diminutive flying insects, gnats, and 
cynips, on which, with small caterpillars, they and their 
young delight to feed. In the months of October and 
November, the approach of winter in their natal regions 
stimulates them to migrate towards the South, when 
they arrive in the Eastern and Middle States, and fre- 
quent in a familiar and unsuspicious rhanner the gardens 
and orchards : how far they proceed to the south is un- 
certain. On the 12t,h of January I observed them near 
Charleston, South Carolina, with companies of Sylvias , 
busily darting through the evergreens in swampy situa- 
tions, in quest of food, probably minute larvae. About 
the first week in March I again observed them in West 
Florida in great numbers, busily employed for hours to- 
gether in the tallest trees, some of which were already 
unfolding their blossoms, such as the maples and oaks. 
About the beginning of April they are seen in Pennsyl- 
vania on their way to the dreary limits of the continent, 
where they probably only arrive towards the close of 
May, so that in the extremity of their range they do not 
stay more than three months. Wilson, it would appear, 
sometimes met with them in Pennsylvania even in sum- 
mer ; but, as far as I can learn, they are never observ- 
