78 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



Spurn on the return migration as early as the i6th March, 

 and in 1891 they were noticed on the nth April. 



A very remarkable incident connected with this little 

 bird's migratory habits occurred near Redcar some years ago, 

 the facts of which were communicated to me at the time by 

 the late J. Wilson, contractor for the work of constructing 

 the Tees Breakwater. He was at the end of the " gare " 

 on the morning of i6th October 1881, when he saw a Short- 

 ei^ed Owl " flopping " across the sea, and noticed, as it drew 

 near, that there was some small object between its shoulders ; 

 it alighted on the Breakwater close to where he was standing 

 and immediately a little bird flew off its back ; one of his 

 men and he followed it up and caught it, when it was found 

 to be a Goldcrest, as I had ocular proof. The fact of " small 

 birds being assisted on migration by larger ones " has long 

 been known to travellers, both in the East and also in America, 

 and most important corroborative evidence was unexpectedly 

 supplied by Mr. Thos. Gibbons of Liverpool, a ship captain, 

 who, in going up the Mediterranean for the Straits of 

 Gibraltar, sighted a flock of birds crossing from the European 

 to the African shore ; they were accompanied by smaller 

 birds which frequently settled on the backs of the large ones 

 and, with the aid of marine glasses, could easily be distinguished 

 nestling in between the shoulders of those on the wing ; 

 occasionally the small birds would start up from their resting 

 places, and stretch their wings for a short distance. (See Zool. 

 1882, pp. 72, 73 ; and Field, 31st March 1888.) 



A departure from the ordinary nidification habits of this 

 bird is sometimes made ; the nest has been met with at 

 Danby on the top of a branch (not underneath) where it 

 emerged from the trunk {Zool. 1863, p. 8680) ; Mr. W. Eagle 

 Clarke found one in a whin bush in Pollard's Woods, near 

 Leeds, and Mr. F. Bo5'es has seen the nests amongst the ivy 

 on trees in woods where there were no spruce or firs. 



Three Goldcrests, shot in February 1882, weighed exactly 

 sixty grains each. 



The vernacular names in use are numerous. Golden 

 Crested Kinglet is used at Sheffield ; Fire Crown at Thi: sk 



