THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN (Regulus flavicapillus).
"Regulus tricolor is longer by half an inch than Regulus cristatus, its bill is stronger and one-twelfth of an inch shorter, its claws are also stronger and shorter, and the flame-coloured patch on the head is more extended and brighter. The European species never has so much grey on the neck and back, and its lower parts are always more tinged with brownish yellow. The other differences are not very obvious; but the difference in the size of the bill, were there no other characteristics, would be enough, in a family of birds so closely resembling each other as the Reguli, to point out the American as distinct from the European species.
"On the 23rd of January," continues the same writer, "I saw great numbers of these birds in the woods near Charlestown, 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 were 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. The young, shot in Newfoundland, in August, had this part of the head of a uniform tint with that of the body. With us they are amazingly fat, but at Newfoundland we found them the reverse."
"The Satrap Wren," says Audubon, "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 Knight, 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 Titmice, Nuthatches, and Brown Creepers, perambulating the tops of trees and bushes, sometimes in the very depth of the forests or of 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 larvæ in the chinks of the branches. Like the Titmice, they are often 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."
THE RUBY-CROWNED WREN.
The RUBY-CROWNED WREN (Regulus calendulus) is four inches long and six in extent of wing; the upper parts of the head, neck, and back are olive, with a considerable tinge of yellow; wings and tail dusky purplish brown, exteriorly edged with yellow olive; secondaries and first row of wing-coverts edged and tipped with white, with a spot of deep purplish brown across the secondaries, just below their coverts; the hinder part of the head is ornamented with an oblong lateral spot of vermilion, usually almost hid by the other plumage; round the eye a ring of yellowish white; whole under parts of the same tint; legs dark brown, feet and claws yellow, bill slender, straight not notched, furnished with a few black hairs at the base; inside of the mouth orange. The female differs very little in its plumage from the male, the colours being less lively, and the bird somewhat less.
"This little bird," says Wilson, "is an American species, visits us early in the spring from the south, and is generally first found among the maple blossoms about the beginning of April; these failing, it has recourse to those of the peach, apple, and other fruit trees, partly for the tops of the sweet and slender stamina of the flowers, and partly for the winged insects that hover among them. In the middle of summer I have rarely met with these birds in Pennsylvania; and as they penetrate as far north as the country round Hudson's Bay, and also breed there, it accounts for their late arrival here in fall. They then associate with the different species of Titmouse and the Golden-crested Wren, and are particularly numerous in the month of October and beginning of November, in orchards, among the decaying leaves of the apple-trees, that at that season are infested with great numbers of small, black-winged insects, among which they make a great havoc. I have often regretted the painful necessity one is under of taking the lives of such inoffensive, useful little creatures, merely to obtain a more perfect knowledge of the species, for they appear so busy, so active and unsuspecting, as to continue searching about the same twig, even after their companions have been shot down beside them. They are more remarkably so in autumn, which may be owing to the great number of young and inexperienced birds which are then among them; and frequently at this season I have stood under the tree, motionless, to observe them, while they gleaned among the low branches, sometimes within a foot or two of my head. They are extremely adroit in catching their prey, have only at times a feeble chirp, visit the tops of the tallest trees as well as the lowest bushes, and continue generally for a considerable time among the branches of the same tree, darting about from place to place; appearing, when on the top of a high maple, no bigger than humble-bees."
"Notwithstanding all my endeavours," continues our author, "I have never been able to discover their nest, though, from the circumstance of having found them sometimes here in summer, I am persuaded that they occasionally breed in Pennsylvania, but I know several birds no larger than this that usually breed on the extremities of the tallest trees in the woods, which I have discovered from their beginning before the leaves are out; many others, no doubt, choose similar situations, and, should they delay building until the woods are thickened with leaves, it is no easy matter to discover them. In fall they are so extremely fat, as almost to dissolve between the fingers as you open them, owing to the great abundance of their favourite insects at that time."