84 The Golden-Crested Wren. 



the nest and reared by hand. These birds "began to sing with the appearance 

 of their first mature feathers, and continued in song all the month of October." 



Family— TURD ID. ^. Sub/am ily—S YL VI IN^. 



The Golden-Crested Wren. 



Rcgiilus crisiatiis, K. L. KoCH. 



PERHAPS to the case of few species are the observations of Herr Gatke 

 more applicable than to that of the Gold-crest when he says, speaking of 

 the countless myriads of birds which pass over Heligoland on migration, 

 and furthermore of this very species : — ■" The east-to-west migration of the 

 Golden-crested Wren in October, 1882, extended in one continuous column, not 

 only across the east coast of England and Scotland, but even up to the Faroe 

 Islands. When one thinks of numbers of individuals such as these, which cannot 

 be grasped by human intelligence, it seems absurd to talk of a conceivable 

 diminution in the number of birds being effected through the agency of man. In 

 one particular respect man no doubt does exert a noticeable influence on the 

 numbers of bird-life, not, however, b}^ means of net and gun, but rather by the 

 increasing cultivation of the soil, which roots out ever}^ bush and shrub, great 

 or small, as a useless obstacle, and thus robs the bird of eveu the last natural 

 protection of its nest. Having thus driven the poor creatures into distant and 

 less densely populated districts, we complain that we no longer hear their merry 

 song, unconscious of the fact that we are ourselves responsible for the cause." 



This is a point which I have always insisted upon : no Act for the protection 

 of wild birds, which does not forbid the wholesale grubbing of woods, and so-called 

 " waste land," will ever prevent the diminution of bird-life in our Islands. 



The Gold-crest is generally distributed over Europe in Scandinavia northward 

 to the Arctic Circle, and in Russia from Archangel and the Ural Mountains ; in 



