I 



GOLDEN CRESTED REGULUS. 319 



of our rigorous winters, and are among the earliest breeders 

 in spring, the invitation songs of the males being frequently- 

 heard by the end of February. The nest is placed under a 

 branch of a fir, and generally towards the end of the bough, 

 being supported by two or three of the laterally diverging 

 and pendant twigs, which are interwoven with the moss of 

 which the outside of the nest is principally composed. The 

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

 vignette at the end, is frequently lined with feathers ; and, both 

 for security and architecture, is one of the prettiest examples 

 to be found among our indigenous nest-makers. So confident 

 and bold, also, is the female when sitting on her nest, as to 

 allow very close observation without flying oflT. She lays 

 from six to ten eggs, of a pale reddish white, six lines long 

 and five lines in diameter. Colonel Montagu, who timed the 

 visits of a female to her nest of eight young ones which he 

 kept in his room, found that she came once in each minute 

 and a half or two minutes, or, upon an average, thirty-six 

 times in an hour ; and this continued full sixteen hours in a 

 day. The male would not venture into the room ; yet the 

 female would feed her young while the nest was held in the 

 hand. Mr. Selby says, in reference to the early breeding of 

 this species, that he has known the young birds to be fully 

 fledged as early as the third week of April. 



The Gold Crest appears to be distributed generally over 

 the whole of the south of England and in Wales, and is 

 mentioned by Mr. Thompson, and others, as common and 

 indigenous to Ireland. In the counties north of London it is 

 also plentiful ; and on the eastern coast, at the end of autumn, 

 this species occasionally arrives in flocks. Mr. Williamson of 

 Scarborough, has observed this on the coast of Yorkshire ; 

 and Mr. Selby has recorded that, " on the 24th and 25th of 

 October 1 822, after a very severe gale, with thick fog from 

 the north-east, but veering towards its conclusion to the east 



