Unknown
1929
12
749a
A team of dedicated board members, volunteers, and student interns has published every page in Volume 9. This volume includes 360 images of paintings and lyrical descriptions of birds, now available online for everyone to enjoy anywhere in the world. This is a monumental task. Each volume requires approximately 400 hours to photograph, edit, transcribe, catalog, and publish online. We need your support to complete this work.
If you're tech-savvy, have a good eye, are meticulous with details, and love structured data, please consider volunteering by emailing us at hello@rexbrasher.org.
We encourage all bird lovers and supporters to consider a monetary donation to support our mission to make Rex's work available for everyone. You can provide a one-time or recurring donation online.
THE RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET
Where's your kingdom, little king?
Where the land you call your own,
Where your palace and your throne?
Fluttering lightly on the wing
Through the blossom-world of May,
Whither lies your royal way,
Little king?
Far to northward lies a land
Where the trees together stand
Closely as the blades of wheat
When the summer is complete.
Rolling like an ocean wide
Over vale and mountainside,
Balsam, hemlock, spruce and pine,—
All those mighty trees are mine.
There's a river flowing free,—
All its waves belong to me.
There's a lake so clear and bright
Stars shine out of it all night;
Rowan-berries round it spread
Like a belt of coral red.
Never royal garden planned
Fair as my Canadian land!
There I build my summer nest,
There I reign and there I rest,
While from dawn to dark I sing,
Happy kingdom! Lucky king!
Back again, my little king!
Is your happy kingdom lost
To the rebel knave, Jack Frost?
Have you felt the snow-flakes sting?
Houseless, homeless in October,
Whither now? Your plight is sober,
Exiled king!
Far to southward lie the regions
Where my loyal flower-legions
Hold possession of the year,
Filling every month with cheer.
Christmas wakes the winter rose;
New Year daffodils unclose;
Yellow jasmine through the wood
Flows in February flood,
Dropping from the tallest trees
Golden streams that never freeze.
Thither now I take my flight
Down the pathway of the night,
Till I see the southern moon
Glisten on the broad lagoon,
Where the cypress' dusky green,
And the dark magnolia's sheen,
Weave a shelter round my home.
Nest and eggs similar to Ruby Crowned Kinglet.
Pacific coast. Breeds from Prince William sound and Skagway, Alaska, to British Columbia. Winters south to central California.
A 50–60 foot tree, with 2–3, sometimes 6-foot trunk, distributed in a narrow strip from Cypress Point to Carmel Bay, 2 miles long: and a small grove on Point Lobos, California.