36 A CLEVER ARCHITECT. 



ever singing, chattering, quarrelling, but never 

 resting. It is a pleasant sight to watch this 

 army of insect-hunters, climbing back down- 

 Avards, peering curiously into every crack and 

 crevice under the leaves, and into the flowers. 

 Concealment is of little avail to the insect ; sharp 

 eyes spy him out, and sharper beaks nip the 

 idler, and drag him from his lair. Often a moth, 

 or other winged insect, takes refuge in flight, 

 when surprised in his nest; then a host of 

 nimble pinions dart after the fugitive, and, spite 

 of twists and turns and angular eiforts to escape, 

 tit or golden-crest catches him, and, descending 

 to the ground, himself pursued by his fellow- 

 hunters, picks off the gay wings and legs of his 

 prize, then swallows the dainty but limbless morsel. 

 There are few more skilful architects than 

 the Golden Crest. The place selected for the 

 nest is generally at the end of a pine branch, 

 where, like a cradle, it is rocked by every passing 

 breeze; but so ingeniously is the nest contrived, 

 that, rock and swing as it may, neither eggs nor 

 young can ever be jerked out. The nest is 

 tightly woven, and composed of twigs, moss, 

 lichen, fronds of the larch, and dead leaves ; a 

 structure, when completed, exactly resembling 

 the branch of the tree to which it is really 



