Warblers. 97 



birds. It must keep itself warm, therefore, by its con- 

 tinual movements when at liberty ; it is never still 

 during the day, and probably it creeps into some warm 

 hole during the night. Mr. Thompson, however, says 

 that many of these birds are found dead during the 

 winter in the north of Ireland, even after only a slight 

 frost. Bechstein says the young birds are easily reared 

 on mealworms cut small, flies, ants' eggs, and bread 

 soaked in milk, if taken from the nest when "quite 

 fledged ; and that they can be kept in an aviary, or 

 in a bell-shaped cage, on Nightingale's food. Mr. 

 Herbert kept some for some time during the winter 

 on egg and meat, and they grew quite tame ; they 

 always roosted packed as closely as possible together 

 on the perch. A severe frost killed them in February. 

 If reared from the nests, the Gold-crests should be 

 kept in a trellised room, or aviary in which a small fir 

 or pine-tree could be placed ; a little fresh earth should 

 be given for them to peck at, and they must have a 

 supply of insects occasionally, and ants' eggs, and 

 crushed hemp-seed; rape-seed is said to kill them. 

 They ought to be kept in numbers : a solitary Gold- 

 crest would be very wretched in a cage, and they al- 

 ways fly about in troops, associating with Titmice, 

 Creepers, and other small birds, who all hunt the same 

 game together. Mr. Lord speaks of flocks of fifty or 

 sixty Gold-crests, Tits, and Nuthatches in the pine- 

 trees in Columbia, " an army of insect-hunters, peering 



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