Po'cliiiw Birds. 



47 



THE 



GOLD-CRESTS. 



Family 



REGULIDM. 



It is a bird of retired and skulking habits, and it lives entirely in the reed-beds, 

 where it feeds on msects and tiny mollusca, as well as on the seeds of the reeds 

 themselves. The nest is placed low down in a clump of rushes, and is rather a 

 deeply made structure of flat grass, lined with down. The eggs are from four to 

 seven in number, white, with dots and streaks of dark brown. 



The Gold-Crests are among the smallest of known birds, and 

 are found only in the temperate portions of the Old and New 

 Worlds, occurring as far south as the Himalayas in the former, 

 and in Central America in the latter. They have all a beautiful 

 crown of orange, yellow, or red, more or less concealed by the 

 lateral feathers of the head. 



The Common Gold-Crest [Regains n-giiliis). This is the resident species in 

 Great Britain, and is found everywhere, excepting in the northern islands of Scot- 

 land, while a large migration from Northern Europe occurs annually, and a 

 corresponding wave of returning 

 migrants is often noticed in sprmg. 

 How such a tiny and fragile little 

 bird accomplishes these long dis- 

 tances of flight is one of the puzzles 

 of nature, and the migration is often 

 performed in daylight, as I have seen 

 myself in Heligoland, while that it 

 travels also by night is shewn by its 

 appearance in numbers at the light- 

 houses, and also by a curious in- 

 stance which occurred at the end of 



The Fire-Ckest. 



The Gold-Crest 



October, 1897, when a gentleman 



brought to the National History Museum a live Gold-Crest, which had flown at ten 

 o'clock on the preceding night into the top-most carriage of the gigantic wheel at the 

 Earl's Court E.xhibition. It was by watching this interesting little captive that I was 

 enabled to see that the orange crest is not displa3ed as a rule, but is kept concealed 

 by the feathers on each side of the crown. 



The nest is made of green moss, lined with feathers, and is slung, hammock-like, 

 under the branch of a fir or yew, and the young, when fully fledged, sit in a row on 

 some adjoining fruit tree, being fed in turn by the industrious little parent birds, 

 and the clamour made by the nestlings is something quite remarkable. The eggs 

 are from five to eight in number, creamy white or isabelline in colour, usually with a 

 distinct zone of reddish-brown around the larger end of the egg. 



The Fikf.-Crest (Regulus igniaipiUus). This species is an inhabitant of Central 

 and Southern Europe, extending as far north as the Baltic Provinces, but not 

 nesting in Scandinavia. It is only a winter visitant to Great Britain, and never 



