GOLDCREST. 21 



it is increasing in numbers. In Furness, Mr. W. A. 

 Durnford reports it as resident, but not common. A 

 full nest contains eight or nine eggs, and these are 

 usually laid by the 1st of May. The nest is invariably 

 very near the end of a branch, and is placed at various 

 heights ; sometimes in the lowest, and sometimes in the 

 very highest branches. 



/ FIEE-CEEST. 



PiEGULus iGNiCAPiLLus (C. L. Brelim). 



The only instance of the occurrence of this rare winter 

 visitor is supplied me by Mr. John Hardy, of Manchester. 

 He says, " once seen and three specimens obtained in 

 Hough End Clough and in a small wood with a few 

 Scotch firs near to it, in the month of December, 1851 ; 

 its habit and call-note seemed exactly the same as that 

 of the common species, with which it became occasionally 

 mixed. I could not ascertain that the flock had been 

 seen in any other place either before they came, or after 

 their departure. I had heard of them having been seen 

 in the same neighbourhood the year before, but I could 

 not get sight of a specimen which had been collected : 

 the birds seen at the date above given were undoubtedly 

 Fire-crests." [It does not appear that the above speci- 

 mens have been identified by any authority whose 

 decision would carry weight. See also Mr. J. H. Gur- 

 ney's remarks in Zoologist for 1889, p. 174. — Ed.] 



