The Golden-Crested Wren. 87 



consist wholly of small soft feathers. Some eggs which I have seen, were creamy 

 white ; others, densely and minutely dusted all over with rusty-reddish ; others 

 again, with a deeper rust-red zone, or terminal nebula, at the larger extremit}'. 



The song of the Gold-crest is short, low, but pleasing ; though its call-notes 

 are thin and almost as shrill as the notes of a bat. Dixon in describing the song 

 calls it eulogistically " a few notes of matchless melody." 



This tin}' bird haunts woods, shrubberies, plantations of fir, larch and other 

 conifers, yew-trees in churchj'ards and cemeteries, copses, orchards and gardens. 

 In its habits it greath^ resembles the Tits, dropping from spray to twig, turning, 

 twisting, closel}' examining ever}' inch of its swaying perch for insect prey, and 

 incessantly uttering its high piercing whistle; then, gliding rapidly from the end 

 of some feathery spray, it passes on to another tree and recommences its acrobatic 

 performances. Like the Tits also, this little bird is wonderfully confiding : one 

 autumn whilst standing on a balcony leading by steps into the garden of the 

 house which I then inhabited, I heard the shrill note of this species just above 

 my head, and looking upwards saw a pair of Gold-crests clambering about over 

 a jasmine which I had trained to cover a wire arch above the doorway ; they 

 appeared to be quite indifferent to my presence not a foot below them. 



Stevenson, in his " Birds of Norfolk," after speaking of the well ascertained 

 fact that thousands of these tiny birds in the autumn come to swell the numbers 

 of our residents, observes: — "Perhaps the most striking instance, however, of the 

 migration of the Gold-crest, in large numbers, to our eastern coast, was witnessed 

 by Captain Longe, of Great Yarmouth, on the morning of the and of November, 

 1862. In a letter to myself at the time, he says 'As I was walking to Hemsby, 

 about 7-30 when it was just daylight, about half a mile out of Yarmouth, on the 

 Caister road, my attention was attracted to a small bush overhanging the marsh 

 dyke, which borders the pathway, by the continuous twittering of a small bird. 

 On looking closely, I found the bush, small as it was, literally covered with 

 Golden-crested Wrens. There was hardly an inch of twig that had not a bird 

 on it, and even from my rough attempt at calculation at the time, I feel sure 

 there were at least between two and three hundred. Most of them were either 

 females or young birds, having a lemon-coloured crest ; they were perfectly tame, 

 and although I sat down on the other side of the ditch, within six feet, and 

 watched them for some time, they did not attempt to fly away ; but one or more 

 would occasionally rise off its perch, hover like a butterfly, and settle again in 

 some other position. I went the next morning to look for them, but they were 

 all gone. The wind had been easterly, with much fog.'" 



The food of the Gold-crest consists principally of insects, small spiders, &.c.; 



Y 



