86 The Golden-Crestkd Wren. 



seen in flocks, and often in company of Long-tailed Tits. In the latter season it 

 haunts pine-forests, as well as hedges ; but in the breeding season plantations of 

 spruce and larch are its favourite resorts. The male sings continuously in the 

 vicinity of its nest, and if disturbed the old birds creep about incessantly near to 

 their home with quivering wings. 



Furthermore, Mr. Frohawk says that he has never known a Gold-crest to 

 erect a crest ; the feathers of the head are, however, somewhat expanded laterally 

 so as to expose the golden stripe in its full beaut3% this stripe being very narrow 

 when the bird is in repose. Mr. Staines, of Penge, who has on several occasions 

 attempted to keep the Gold-crest as a cage-bird, confirms Mr. Frohawk's opinion 

 in all particulars: he has never seen the bird erect, though he has seen it expand 

 its crest. 



Lord Lilford (Birds of Northamptonshire) says: — "The call-note of the Gold- 

 crest is peculiar and constantly repeated whilst the birds are on their excursions. 

 In very cold weather I have found a family of perhaps a dozen of these little 

 birds clustered together for warmth beneath the snow-laden bough of an old yew- 

 tree, to the under surface of which the uppermost birds were clinging by their 

 feet, whilst, as far as I could see, the others clung to them and to one another, 

 so as to form a closely packed feathery ball. I happened to notice this by chance, 

 'and, in the gloom of the overhanging boughs, thought it was an old nest, but on 

 touching it with the end of a walking-stick, the supposed nest dissolved itself into 

 a number of these minute creatures, who did not appear much alarmed, but dis- 

 persed themselves on the adjoining boughs, and, no doubt, soon resumed their 

 previous formation, which I was sorry to have disturbed. Although the nests of the 

 Gold-crest are generally placed imder the branches of a yew or a fir tree, we have 

 twice found them in a thin fence at about five feet from the ground; the materials 

 are soft moss and lichens, wool, a little grass, and a mass of small feathers by 

 way of lining.* The eggs are of a yellowish-white, very closely spotted or 

 clouded with pale rust-colour, and vary in number from six or seven to ten or 

 more ; I once found twelve in a nest." 



A nest in my collection, taken from the under-surface of a yew-branch and 

 interlaced in the terminal feathery leaves, is formed almost entirely of moss, 

 compacted with spiders' silk and one or two small feathers ; the lining appears to 



* Mr. A. T. Mitchell has drawn attention to the fact that, in some parts of Ireland, the Gold-crest "builds 

 commonly against the sides of ivy-covered trees. The nest is not suspended under a branch of fir, as I have 

 found it in England, and the nests here are badly and loosely put together." Mr. J. Trumbull states that of 

 seventeen nests of the Gold-crest found in Co. Dublin, onlj' four were placed beneath the surface of a branch. 

 Mr. II. S. Davenport has found half a dozen nests of the Gold-crest "placed against the sides of ivy-clad trees." 

 The Rev. H. A. Macpherson has also pointed out that the Gold-crest occasionally builds its nest in the middle 

 of a furze-bush (Cf. Zool. 1895, pp. 385, 431, 448). 



