Taken near Tacoma. Photo by the Authors.
NID-NID-NODDING.
When the young of the first brood are hatched and ready to fly, the chief care of them falls to the father, while the female prepares for a second nesting. As to the further domestic relations one cannot speak with certainty, but it would seem at least possible that fall bird troops consist of the combined families of Mr. and Mrs. Quiverful.
As to the time of home-making, the Ringlets are not very particular. Nor is it necessary that they should be. It is always spring here after the first of February. Besides that, a fir tree is both forest and store-house at any season. In the vicinity of Tacoma, the usual nesting time is the last week in April for the first set, and the second week in June for the second. The earliest record is April 9th, that of a nest containing half-grown young. The first egg of this set must, therefore, have been deposited about March 15th.
So far as we can make out, this bird is strictly resident in western Washington, but it is much less common on the east side of the Cascades, and is there largely migratory. Not only does the species retire in winter from the mountains to the lower foot-hills, but considerable numbers pass over the State to and from British Columbia. At such times they appear wherever timber or watered shrubbery is to be found. With manners so engaging and lives so sheltered, to say nothing of families so blessed in the yearly increase, is it any wonder that the gentle tribe of Regulus prevails thruout the giant forests of this western slope, and spills over in blessing wherever trees abound?
No. 104.
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET.
A. O. U. No. 749. Regulus calendula (Linn.).
Description.—Adult male: Above olive-green, duller anteriorly, brightening to greenish yellow on edgings of quills and tail-feathers; a partly concealed crest of scarlet (flame-scarlet to scarlet-vermilion); two narrow, whitish wing-bars formed by tips of middle and greater coverts; some whitish edging on tertials; a dusky interval separating greenish yellow edges on outer webs of secondaries; a whitish eye-ring and whitish skirtings around base of bill; under parts soiled white, heavily tinged with buffy and olivaceous buff. Adult female and immature: Similar but without crown-patch. Length 4.00-4.50 (101.6-114.3); wing 2.33 (59.2); tail 1.72 (43.7); bill from nostril .25 (6.4).
Recognition Marks.—Pygmy size; scarlet crest distinctive. Note wing-bars and whitish eye-ring of female and young. Lighter than R. c. grinnelli.
Nesting.—Nest: a ball of moss, lichens, etc., bound together with cobwebs, and lashed to drooping twigs beneath branch of conifer, lined with vegetable-down, catkins, hair, and feathers, and placed at moderate heights. Eggs: 5-9, dull white, or pale buffy, faintly or sharply but sparingly speckled with reddish brown, chiefly about larger end. Av. size, .55 × .43 (14 × 10.9). Season: June; one brood(?).
General Range.—North America at large in wooded districts, north to limit of trees, west to northwestern Alaska (Kowak River), breeding chiefly north of the United States, and irregularly in the higher ranges of the West.
Range in Washington.—Common spring and fall migrant; summer resident in northeastern portion of State only(?).
Migrations.—Spring: April, May. Fall: October.
Authorities.—Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. pt. II. 1858, p. 227. (T.) C&S. L¹. Rh.(?) D¹. Sr. Ra. D². Kk. J. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. P¹. Prov. B. BN. E.
“Where’s your kingdom, little king?
Where’s the land you call your own?
Where’s your palace and your throne?
Fluttering lightly on the wing