324 THE GOLD CRESTED-REGULUS. 



purpose ; so that if the gold-crests rear two and three broods in 

 the year (which I see no reason to doubt) they must make new 

 cradles for each. This nest (which I brought home) was neatly 

 and strongly hung on eight small pendant twigs, the outside 

 being firmly entwined around them — it seemed a wise provision 

 to be suspended between these twigs to allow for its expansion 

 as the young ones grew ; for its original size, though large 

 enough for incubation, could not have held the ten ripe young 

 birds. As I brought the branch with the nest home I carefully 

 inspected both. The nest was firmly put together as if sewn 

 with spiders' webs, some hairs, wool, and fur, all interlaced 

 amongst moss and fine lichens ; profusely lined inside with small 

 feathers and some hairs — the outside being stuck all over with 

 green and grey lichens to resemble the branch. Tennyson not 

 inaptly says — 



" Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these? 

 Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught 

 The dialect they speak, where melodies 

 Alone are the interpreters of thought ? " 



With keener instinct than Columbus in search of America, the 

 courageous little gold-crests cross the North Sea, from Norway 

 to Britain, 350 miles, with their tiny wings and a fair wind 

 blowing, at the rate of fifty miles an hour, in six or seven hours, 

 if the wind keeps fair ; but if adverse many perish — proved by 

 Selby, who saw them arrive exhausted on the 26th of October 

 1822. He says — " After a severe north-east gale on the 24th 

 and 25th, which veered to east south-east some hours before its 

 conclusion, they arrived along the coast of Northumberland by 

 hundreds upon the beach, so exhausted by the unfavourable 

 change of wind as to drop the moment they reached land, 

 unable to make further exertions. Great numbers were taken 

 by the hand, unable to rise or escape their pursuers." This 

 great flight he ascertained extended from Berwick to Whitby 

 in Yorkshire. Kedwings, fieldfares, and woodcocks came at the 

 same time from "the northern provinces of Europe." The 

 numbers daily increased, but soon spread over the country, until 

 about Christmas only the usual number remained in the locality. 

 From the 12th to the 24th of January following, a prolonged 

 sea and snowstorm set in, which, after a week's cessation, was 

 renewed from the 1st to the 4th of February — long after 

 known here as the Long Storm, from the number of vessels 

 wrecked on the west sands. And as a result of that long storm 

 scarcely a gold-crested wren was to be seen that year, until some 



