450 sviA'TiDi:. 



crested Wren, the subject of the present notice, has a soft 

 and pleasing song. Pennant says he has observed this 

 bird suspended in the air for a considerable time over a 

 bush in flower, while it sang very melodiously ; but this 

 peculiarity does not seem to have been noticed by other 

 naturalists. The song may be commonly heard in spring, 

 but the bird being generally among the tree-tops, its actual 

 position cannot thereby be easily discovered, and its voice not 

 being very strong, one must be advantageously placed to hear 

 it in perfection. It is most frequently to be observed in fir- 

 plantations, where it may be seen, all life and activity, 

 flitting from branch to branch, clinging to the leaves in 

 various attitudes, often with its back downwards, and eagerly 

 engaged seeking various insects or their hidden larvae, 

 occasionally, it is said, eating also a few seeds or small 

 berries. The Golden-crested Wren is a very social bird, and 

 except at the season of reproduction is almost always to be 

 observed in companies, each consisting to all appearance of 

 a family-party, the members of which keep together by 

 repeatedly answering one another's call as they rove from 

 tree to tree, in quest of their food. This call-note is faint 

 and has been compared to that of the Treecreeper, which 

 not unfrequently accompanies the busy band. Though the 

 species, as will presently be shewn, is greatly subject to the 

 migratory influence, it occurs in this country all the year 

 round ; and is even observed to be sometimes more nu- 

 merous in winter than in summer, many arriving here late 

 in autumn from colder northern regions, and braving the 

 severity of our winters. It is among the earliest breeders in 

 spring, the song of the male being frequently heard by the 

 end of February. The nest is generally placed under a 

 branch of a fir, yew or cedar, near the end of the bough, 

 being supported by two or three of the laterally diverging 

 and pendant twigs, which are interwoven with the materials 

 of which the outside is principally composed. The nest 

 thus sheltered by the fir-branch above it, as shewn in the 

 next vignette, is built of the softest moss, thickly felted with 

 wool and spiders' webs intermixed with a few grasses and 



