62 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS, 
and abundance of feathers inside, and is also placed on (or very 
near) the ground on a hedgebank. The Chiffchaff lays six eggs, 
white, with specks of dark purplish-red— vg. 12, plate IIT. 
67. DARTFORD WARBLER—(Welizophilus provincialis). 
A bird which is scarcely known except on some of the furze- 
growing commons of the South, especially Kent and Surrey. 
The nest is of dry grass-stalks, loosely put together and tied 
with wool, and sparingly lined with other fine and dry vegetable 
substances. ‘The eggs,” we read in Yarrell, “are somewhat 
similar to those of the Whitethroat, but rather less; and like 
them, are tinged with green. They are speckled all over with 
. olive-brown and cinereous on a greenish white ground; the 
markings becoming more dense and forming a zone at the large 
end.”—fig. 13, plate ILL. 
68. GOLD-CRESTED REGULUS—(Regulus cristatus). 
Gold-crest, Gold-crested Wren, Golden-crested Warbler, Gcld- 
crowned Kinglet.—One of the smallest of our native birds and 
possessing a “soft and pleasing song.” Its nest—one of the 
very most beautiful of all our English nests—is built below the 
branch of a spruce fir-tree and near the end of the bough, being sus- 
pended to two or more of the spreading side-boughs. ‘These are 
often woven in with the moss and wool of the nest, and then 
there is a lining of feathers; spiders’ webs too are used to 
compact the structure. Seven or eight eggs are laid, which vary 
remarkably, in different nests, m both ground-shade and mark- 
igs. Some remind one of the usual Robin’s egg in both, though 
the spots are much finer. Others are pale white, with yellowish- 
brown (rather than red) speckles.—Fig. 14, plate IIL. de, 
