■JOG THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 



pursuit oi'iusocls, ho opens uud shuts this golden ornament with great adroitness, which 

 produces a striking and elegant effect. The' breast and the sides under the wings are a 

 light cream colour ; the wings are dusky, edged externally fl'ith oli\e j-ellow ; the tail is 

 rather long, forked, and dusky, the exterior vanes being broadly edged with oli\o 

 yellow ; the legs arc brown, and the feet and the claws yellow. Tlie ujjper mandible of 

 the bill is notched at the point, and furnished at the base with bristles that reacli luilf- 

 way to the point ; and, what is peculiar and singular in this bird, the nostril on each side 

 is covered by a single feather, much resembling the antennae of some insects, and is half 

 the length of the bill.* 



At this season its numbers arc augmented by arrivals from the north of Europe— for the 

 range of this bird on the continent extends to the arctic circle, and occasionall_y vast flights 

 are driven exhausted upon our coast. Of this Mr. Selby gives the following instance, which 

 fell under his own observation: — "On the 24th and 2oth of October, 1822, after a very 

 severe gale, Avith thick fog, from the north-east (but veering tow"ards its conclusion to the 

 cast, and south bj^ cast), thous;inds of these birds were seen to arrive upon the seashore 

 and sand banks of the Northumbrian coast; many of them so fatigued by the length of 

 their flight, or, perhaps, by the unfavourable shift of wind, as to be miable to rise again 

 from the ground, and great numbers were in consequence caught and destroyed. Tliis 

 flight must have been immense in quantity, as its extent was traced throughout the whole 

 length of the coasts of Northumberland and Durham. Tliere apjjears little doubt of this 

 having been a migration from the more northern provinces of Europe (probably furnished 

 by the pine forests of Norway and Sweden), from the circumstance of its arrival being 

 simultaneous with that of large flights of the woodcock, fieldfare, and redwing. Although 

 I had never before witnessed the actual anlval of the gold-crested regulus, I had long 

 felt convinced, from the groat and sudden increase of the species during the autumnal and 

 winter months, that our indigenous birds must be augmented by a body of strangers, 

 making these shores their vv'inter resort." Mr. Selby further states that at the conclu- 

 sion of January, 182.'3, a few days previous to a long-continued snow-storm, which was 

 severely felt throughout the east of Scotland, and the north of England, the whole tribe 

 of these birds, natives as well as strangers, entirely disappeared from the districts in ques- 

 tion, nor did any return to breed on the approach of spring; not a single pair was seen 

 in the usual situations -In which they wore accustomed to pass the summer. 



In a note upon some observations by Bechstein the- writer says, relative to the mode of 

 keeping the gold-crest in confinement: — "(_)ne of these pretty birds, whicli 1 had in my 

 room one winter, ate with pleasure, iiiid appeared fo tlirive, upon a very simple paste, 

 made of the crumb of white bread, dried in^'in oven and jjowdered; a tea^^p(lonf^tl of this 

 was put in a cup, and three teaspoonfuls of milk, as hot as it co\dd be made without boil- 

 ing, poured over it." Bechstein says that the liird re(uiires flies, ants' eggs, etc. 



TIIR wool) 'AKEX.f 



Gilbert White, in a letter to Pennant (.\ugust 17lli, ITliSj, says, "IliaVe now, past 

 dispute, nuidc out three distinct species of willow-wrens (Mohuilln- Irorliill), wliich con- 

 stantly and invarialjly use distinct notes. In my letter of April ISth, I had told you 

 peremptorily that 1 know your willow -lark, but had not seen it then ; but when I came 

 to procure it, it proved in uU respects a ^ery Motiuilht frorhilus (Si/lrid trorhiliis), only 

 that it is a size larger than the other two, and the yellow green of the whole ujiper part 

 of (lie body i.s more vivid, and the belly of a clearer white. I have specimens of (lirec 

 distinct sorts lying before me, and eau discern tliat tlure are three gradations of sizes, 

 and that the least has Ijlack legs (chilfchalf;, and the other two flesh-coloured ones. The 



• Wilson. t Sylvitt SibiliUii.v. 



