and Titmice 123 



used to scald them, and squeeze out the insides, which 

 come away quite easily from within the skin. 



The little gold-crest used to cling to the bars of 

 his cage and peck out the contents as I held the skin 

 in my fingers. 



Such an operation may sound very nasty, but 

 food for birds must be studied as much as food for 

 human beings ; and squeezing out mealworms' in- 

 teriors isn't half so nasty as doing something of that 

 sort to rabbits that are to be cooked for our dinners. 

 " Oh ! la, la ! " as the French say. 



The structure of a golden-crested wren's nest is very 

 wonderful — quite as wonderful as that of another 

 kind of Wren, of which there was only one, and that 

 was Regulus c/iristop/ieros, which, though at first sight 

 may appear to mean a crested wren, does not. This 

 was Christopher Wren, who built a wonderful nest, 

 usually known as St. Paul's Cathedral. Well ! as I 

 was saying, the nest of Regulus cristatus is in its way 

 equally marvellous. Not so lasting, it is true, as that 

 of R. c/iristop/ieros, but the architecture thereof is as 

 much to be admired and wondered at. 



R. christopheros, like the London sparrow, chose 

 to build in the great metropolis ; though, of course, 

 when first constructed, it was more rural in its sur- 

 roundings than to-day. 



R. cristatus distinctly prefers the country, where 

 in firs, and yews, and cedars, he finds that thickly- 

 needled and flattened foliage, on branches beneath 

 which he can hide his nest — a Turkish coffee-cup of 

 moss, spiders' webs, and lichens. 



