144 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



banks, porticos of houses, ivy-covered walls, old 

 roots of trees. The Wren is a v^ery early breeder. 

 It is generally distributed throughout Europe, 

 ranging to 64 deg. north of Scandinavia, and nearly 

 as high in the north of Russia. It is also found in 

 North Africa, and ranges eastward to Northern 

 Persia, 



The Gold-Crest. 

 Family, TurdidcB. 

 This pretty little wren, the smallest of our British 

 Birds, measuring only 3^- inches in length, is resi- 

 dent with us in favourable localities throuofhout the 

 year, but the numbers are augmented by the immi- 

 gration of countless flocks that arrive on the east 

 coast in the autumn, and soon distribute themselves 

 generally over the country. There are two very inter- 

 esting matters in connection with this tiny species 

 the first being the subject of immigration, the second, 

 the character of its nest. Herr Gatke, the great 

 authority on migration, who spent much of his life in 

 the study of birds that passed and re-passed the 

 Island of Heligoland says, in referring to this species, 

 on some particular night in October, " Gold-Crests 

 eddied as thick as flakes in a heavy snowfall .... 

 on the morrow literally swarming on every square 

 foot of the island." On this same subject Howard 

 Saunders writes, "In autumn, immense flocks some- 

 times arrive on our east coasts extending quite 

 across England and the Irish Channel, and into 

 Ireland. In 1882, a migration wave of this description 



