FAMILY OF SYLVIANS. 



19 



the dusky wing, and a bright scarlet patch on the 

 crown. It is a summer visitant, with a soft- 

 whispered voice and a hair-Hned nest in the 

 thick fir bushes. 



The Gold - crest (Regulus satrapa) is a perma- 

 nent resident, flocking amid the winter snows with 

 the Chickadees and Nuthatches. It is the smallest 

 of our songsters, except the Humming-bird; and 

 its golden crest, and olive -green coat, and tiny 

 wings, barred with white, make it a gem of 

 feathered beauty. But what a mite ! It is a 

 perfect marvel, in the keenest winter weather, to 

 see the tiny ball of animated down whispering 

 its silvery song and foraging securely in the savage 

 forest scenes. Then it puckers up its feathers 

 and seems to suffer from the cold, but never 

 ceases its silvery, whispered call notes. It feeds 

 on insects and their eggs hidden in the chinks 

 of the forest trees. 



The nest, built in June, is a ball of soft 

 mosses placed in a fir thicket, some four feet 

 from the ground, and, though only two inches in 

 diameter inside, contains ten creamy -white eggs. 



