. Birds through the years . ems incredible that suchsmall birds can live in the terrible cold of these northern winters. Yet they arehale and hearty, cheer-ily uttering their sharpnotes in the coldestwinter. The Kinglets arefour inches long, thesmallest of our birds,except the HummingBird and Winter chief color of thesemidgets is oHve-green with dusky tail and wings. Butthe best mark, if you are able to spy it in a bird sorestless, is a patch of bright orange on the crown of themale, of light yellow on the female. They breed inLabrador and in the vicinity of Hudson Bay, building anest
. Birds through the years . ems incredible that suchsmall birds can live in the terrible cold of these northern winters. Yet they arehale and hearty, cheer-ily uttering their sharpnotes in the coldestwinter. The Kinglets arefour inches long, thesmallest of our birds,except the HummingBird and Winter chief color of thesemidgets is oHve-green with dusky tail and wings. Butthe best mark, if you are able to spy it in a bird sorestless, is a patch of bright orange on the crown of themale, of light yellow on the female. They breed inLabrador and in the vicinity of Hudson Bay, building anest unusually large for such mites. But the eggs aremany, often eight or ten, and the numerous brood requiresa spacious nest. Just think of a pair of these tiny crea-tures securing food for so large a family ! They come to us in the autumn and depart in the spring,for they cannot endure warm weather. Just before hisdeparture the male gives us a taste of his rippling, tunefulsong, which is at its best during the nesting Golden-crowned Kinglets. ON SNOWSHOES 237 Ruby-crowned Kinglet. — A near relative is tiic Ruby-crowned Kinglet, seen during the spring and fall migra-tions. The colors of the plumage are similar except, asthe name suggests, it has a crown of ruby-red instead oforange-yellow. This bird is slightly larger than its cousinand possesses vocal powers thatare truly wonderful in so small asongster. Its notes are very sweet,sustained, and varied, with a wild-ness that is most charming. Nuthatch. — As the Golden-crowns work their way past, Icatch another note, A?j, tay, tay,iine drawn, high pitched, but notso wiry, a piping sound which Irecognize at once as the call of theRed-breasted Nuthatch. He andhis near relative, the White-breasted, are often found in aflock of Chickadees or fact, nearly all the small birdsin winter seek the company ofother varieties. The Nuthatch runs up and downa hemlock tree in spirals, busilysearching for eggs, which are his
Size: 1984px × 1259px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1910
