20 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



GENUS EEGULUS. 



GOLDCEEST. 



Regulus cristatus, Koch. 



Resident, and having its numbers very much increased 

 on the approach of winter by immigrants from the north. 

 Its remaining in smiimer is conditioned by the presence 

 or otherwise of woods of the spruce-fir, to whose branches 

 it attaches its pendulous nest, for, although Mr. John 

 Weld says he has seen the nest on the yew-tree, and 

 Mr. J. B. Hodgkinson that he has found it among whins, 

 the spruce is almost invariably selected. The severe 

 winters and springs of 1879 and 1880 almost destroyed 

 'it about Chipping, and all down the Hodder its numbers 

 were sensibly decreased, but in 1882 the normal quantity 

 was recovered and Longridge Fell tenanted as numer- 

 ously as ever. In the south of the county it is rare in 

 summer, and near Bury it appears chiefly in winter, but 

 the report of the Natural History Society of that town 

 for 1871 states that the nest and eggs have been taken 

 at Cockey Moor and Reddish woods. In the wooded 

 districts bordering the Fylde it breeds sparingly, as 

 also near Accrington ; and on Billinge Hill, within 

 1^ miles of the centre of the populous town of Black- 

 burn, its nest may occasionally be found. Mr. John 

 Hardy has never seen the nest in the count}^ but has 

 observed jw?rs in the wooded parts of Heaton Park 

 during the breeding-season, and the species is also seen 

 in Cliviger in the woods at Holmes Chapel. Mr. T. Jack- 

 son says that he has shot a few at Overton for several 

 years back, alwa3's in the autumn, and that he thinks 



