_Regulus satrapa_, LICHT. Verz. 1823, no. 410.—DALL & BANNISTER
(Alaska).—LORD (Vancouver Isl.).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1859, 227;
Review, 65.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1857, 212 (Orizaba).—BÆDEKER, Cab.
Jour. IV, 33, pl. i, fig. 8 (eggs, from Labrador).—PR. MAX. Cab.
Jour. 1858, 111.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, P. R. R. R. XII, II, 1859, 174
(winters in W. Territory).—LORD, R. Art. Inst. Wool. 1864, 114
(nest?).—DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 476 (Texas, winter).—SAMUELS,
179.—COOPER, Birds Cal. 1, 32. _Sylvia regulus_, WILS.; _Regulus
cristatus_, VIEILL.; _R. tricolor_, NUTT., AUD.
Figures: AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. cxxxii.—IB. Orn. Biog. II, pl.
clxxxiii.—VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept. II, pl. cvi.
SP. CHAR. Above olive-green, brightest on the outer edges of the wing;
tail-feathers tinged with brownish-gray towards the head. Forehead, a
line over the eye and a space beneath it, white. Exterior of the crown
before and laterally black, embracing a central patch of orange-red,
encircled by gamboge-yellow. A dusky space around the eye.
Wing-coverts with two yellowish-white bands, the posterior covering a
similar band on the quills, succeeded by a broad dusky one. Under
parts dull whitish. Length under 4 inches; wing, 2.25; tail, 1.80.
_Female_ without the orange-red central patch. Young birds without the
colored crown.
HAB. North America generally. On the west coast, not recorded south of
Fort Crook. Orizaba, SCLATER; W. Arizona, COUES.
[Illustration: _Regulus satrapa._]
Specimens of this bird from the far West are much brighter and more
olivaceous above; the markings of the face are also somewhat different
in showing less dusky about the eye. These may form a variety
_olivaceus_.
The _Regulus cristatus_ of Europe, a close ally of our bird, is
distinguished by having shorter wings and longer bill; the flame-color
of the head is more extended, the black border is almost wanting
anteriorly. The back and rump, too, are more yellow.
HABITS. The Golden-crested Kinglet, or Wren, as it is often called,
occurs over nearly the whole of the North American continent. It is
abundant from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and throughout the British
Provinces, where it chiefly occurs in its breeding-season. In
Massachusetts it is a winter resident from October until May. In Maine
it is met with in spring and fall, chiefly as a migratory visitor; a
few also remain, and probably breed, in the dense _Thuja_ swamps of
that State. They are most abundant in April, and again in October. In
the vicinity of Calais the Golden-crest is a common summer resident,
and, without doubt, breeds there.
Dr. Woodhouse mentions finding this species in abundance in New Mexico
and Texas, associated with Nuthatches and Titmice. Dr. Cooper found it
abundant in Washington Territory, particularly in the winter, and
ascertained positively that they breed there, by seeing them feeding
their young near Puget Sound, in the month of August. According to Mr.
Ridgway it is much less numerous in the Great Basin than the _R.
calendula_.
The food of this lively and attractive little bird during the summer
months is almost exclusively the smaller winged insects, which it
industriously pursues amid the highest tree-tops of the forest. At
other seasons its habits are more those of the titmice, necessity
leading it to ransack the crevices of the bark on the trunks and
larger limbs of the forest-trees. It is an expert fly-catcher, taking
insects readily upon the wing.
But little is known with certainty regarding its breeding-habits, and
its nest and eggs have not yet been described. The presumption,
however, is that it builds a pensile nest, not unlike the European
congener, and lays small eggs finely sprinkled with buff-colored dots
on a white ground, and in size nearly corresponding with those of our
common Humming-Bird. We must infer that it raises two broods in a
season, from the fact that it spends so long a period, from April to
October, in its summer abode, and still more because while Mr. Nuttall
found them feeding their full-fledged young in May, on the Columbia,
Dr. Cooper, in the same locality, and Mr. Audubon, in Labrador,
observed them doing the same thing in the month of August.
According to the observations of Mr. J. K. Lord, this species is very
common on Vancouver’s Island and along the entire boundary line
separating Washington Territory from British Columbia, where he met
with them at an altitude of six thousand feet. He states that they
build a pensile nest suspended from the extreme end of a pine branch,
and that they lay from five to seven eggs. These he does not describe.
Most writers speak of this Kinglet as having no song, its only note
being a single chirp. But in this they are certainly greatly in error.
Without having so loud or so powerful a note as the Ruby-crown (_R.
calendula_), for its song will admit of no comparison with the
wonderful vocal powers of that species, it yet has a quite distinctive
and prolonged succession of pleasing notes, which I have heard it pour
forth in the midst of the most inclement weather in February almost
uninterruptedly, and for quite an interval.
Bischoff obtained a large number of this species at Kodiak, and also
at Sitka, where it seemed to replace the Ruby-crown.
Regulus cuvieri, AUD.