144 SYL VIABLE. 



i 



woods are mostly at a considerable height from the ground, 

 and our "little king" (saving his majesty) is hard to be 

 distinguished from a fir-cone, except when he is in motion. 

 Gold-crests are eminently social birds ; they generally hunt 

 in parties of half a dozen or more, and do not often change 

 their hunting-ground ; at least I infer as much from the 

 fact that on various occasions I have observed the same 

 bird on the same clump of trees, at intervals extending 

 over several weeks. I could scarcely have been mistaken 

 in the identity of the bird, as it had lost a leg, by what 

 accident I know not ; but the loss did not at all interfere 

 with its activity or spirits. Their sociability extends some- 

 times to birds of other kinds, as the Creeper and the Tits 

 of several species have been seen hunting in company with 

 them. The habits of these birds being similar, they per- 

 haps associate from a feeling of mutual protection, just 

 as Sparrows, Buntings, and Finches make common cause, 

 when they invade our rick-yards. The Gold-crests are, 

 however, naturally less wary than any of the Tits. These 

 last will at once decamp if disturbed, but Gold-crests will 

 continue their hunting without taking any notice of a 

 spectator. Several instances are recorded in which large 

 flocks, consisting of several hundreds of these birds, have 

 been observed at once ; these, it is supposed, must have 

 migrated from higher latitudes, and not broken up into 

 smaller parties after their arrival. The nest of the Gold- 

 crest is a beautiful structure. Its external form is nearly 

 that of a globe, with a contracted opening at the top. It 

 is composed of moss and lichens, interwoven with wool 

 and lined thickly with feathers. It is usually placed among 

 the boughs of a silver-fir or spruce-fir, in such a manner as 

 to be partially suspended from one branch and supported by 

 another. The bird seems neither to court nor to shun the 

 vicinity of human beings ; as I have found nests in the 

 most lonely woods, and I have seen one in the branches 

 of a spruce-fir, so close to my house that I could look into- 



