92 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



two or three to ten or twelve feet from the ground ; 

 rarely in bushes ; in woods, plantations, spinneys, 

 shrubberies, and small clumps of trees, pretty 

 generally throughout the United Kingdom where 

 suitable trees are plentiful. Our illustration is 

 from a photograph taken on the outskirts of a large 

 plantation in Norfolk. 



Materials. Green moss, lichens, fine grass, 

 spider-webs, caterpillar cocoons, and hair, beauti- 

 fully felted together, and lined with down and 

 feathers. It is a wonderfully compact little struc- 

 ture, for which its builder has been known to steal 

 materials from the nest of a Chaffinch close by. 



Eggs. Four to ten ; generally six or seven. 

 Pale flesh colour, or very faint brown ; occasionally 

 white, spotted, and suffused, at the larger end 

 generally, with light reddish-brown. Size about *56 

 by -42 in. 



Time. March, April, May, and June. 



Remarks. Eesident, and a winter visitor. Notes : 

 song weak but pleasant. Call : a shrill tsit, tsit. 

 Local and other names : Golden-Crested Wren, 

 Golden-Crowned Knight, Golden-Crested Warbler, 

 Gold-Crested Wren, Gold-Crowned Wren, " Wood- 

 cock Pilot," from the fact that, as a winter visitor, 

 it precedes that bird by a few days. A close sitter, 

 and the smallest British bird. 



GOLDEN EYE. 



Is said to have bred in the North of Scotland, 

 biit no reliable ornithological authority has yet 

 verified the statement, so far as I can gather. 



