WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



downhearted when he is by. In summer the 

 gold-crest (like his royal brother, the ruby-crown) 

 is a fly-catcher, expertly seizing insects on the 

 wing; and on warm days in winter he forages in 

 the tree-tops for such moths and beetles as are 

 abroad; but necessarily he must subsist chiefly 

 on the larvae which hibernate under the rotten 

 bark, and upon insects' eggs. Thus he is helped 

 to many a meal by the sapsuckers and tomtits, 

 whose stronger bills tear open the recesses where 

 the larvae lie. In summer the kinglets retreat 

 to boreal regions to rear their young ; but we know 

 very little about their domestic life. Just before 

 they leave us in the spring I may, perhaps, have 

 the rare treat to hear a long way off the resonant 

 song of this minute minstrel — bold and clear, 

 carrying me away aloft like that of the English 

 skylark. 

 Another personification of 



" Contented wi' little, and canty wi* mair," 



is the brown creeper, whose bill is curved and long 

 and tender, so that he can do very little digging 

 for himself, but follows in the track of the wood- 

 peckers and nuthatches, and picks up the grubs 

 which their vigorous beaks have dislodged, or 



S8 



