NOTES ON THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. 121 



all sorts of strange postures, and uttering almost 

 incessantly their sharp cry, " tzit, tzit." While 

 searching for food in this way they frequently 

 associate with the long tailed and cole tits, seeming to 

 be on perfectly good terms with them. They often 

 sleep in deserted nests of the common wren, par- 

 ticularly when they have been built in the crevices 

 of an old wall. In the gardens of St. Peter's 

 College, Cambridge, there are some old decayed 

 walls, covered with moss and ivy, which are a very 

 favourite roosting place, and soon after sunset, 

 during the winter months, they may be seen nearly 

 every evening, arriving from the surrounding 

 thickets and taking up their quarters for the night. 

 During the early spring, they separate, and at such 

 times the males are very combative. Two may 

 frequently be seen during the months of March and 

 April, sitting on some small branch, swelling out 

 their feathers, and raising their crests with great airs 

 of mutual defiance, giving out almost incessantly 

 a succession of short hard notes. When fighting 

 they endeavour to seize each other by the feathers 

 of the throat, striking at the same time with their 

 wings. The nest is generally built on the under 

 side of the branch of a spruce fir and towards its 

 extremity. 



The nest closely assimilates in colour to the bark 

 of the branch beneath which it is placed, and is 



