THE WARBLERS 1679 



covered by a single bristly feather, and there are numerous bristles at the rictus of 

 the gape. The rather long wings have the first primary nearly half the length of 

 the second, which is somewhat shorter than the third, and this exceeded in length 

 by the fourth and fifth. The tail has tw r elve feathers, and is slightly forked; the 

 legs are long and slender, with elongated claws. An inhabitant of the pine forests 

 of Europe, the tiny goldcrest (./?. cristatus}, is an exceedingly hardy bird, contriv- 

 ing to obtain subsistence when others are famishing with hunger. During the sum- 

 mer months it haunts gardens and the skirts of woods, building its beautiful little 

 nest upon the under surface of some coniferous tree at very varying distances from 

 the ground; the nest itself an exquisite structure, chiefly of the softest moss and 

 lined with the most delicate of feathers being sometimes finished as early as the 

 middle of March, while fresh eggs may be taken in the middle of July, considerable 

 latitude thus existing in the breeding season. The brooding female is never long 

 away from the nest, and, even if disturbed, only flits anxiously about the tree 

 which contains her treasure, uttering a low, troubled cry so long as she is conscious 

 of being under observation. If surveillance be removed, the little bird slips hastily 

 onto her eggs, and probably remains in the nest, trusting to the decorative skill 

 with which she has adorned its exterior to render her detection difficult. The eggs 

 are white, suffused with reddish buff. Montagu found that the female goldcrest 

 would even venture into a room in order to feed her captive young, and this not 

 once in a way but all through the day. When a brood of young goldcrests is going 

 to roost, a scramble takes place among the young for the warmest place, all roosting 

 in a row, and each endeavoring to get an inside position. Although many of the 

 goldcrests haunting the English hedgerows in winter have been bred in the country, 

 the largest proportion congregating in the coverts at that season are birds which 

 have crossed the North Sea; thousands annually arriving upon the east coast of 

 England, often much exhausted by their travels. The adult male has the forehead 

 olive green; the crest being bright yellow or orange, banded by a black stripe on 

 either side; while the upper parts are olive green tinged with yellow, the wings dark 

 brown edged with greenish yellow, and the lower parts grayish olive. The female 

 has the crest pale yellow instead of orange, while all her tints are more obscure 

 than those of her partner. 



Although a much more local bird than the goldcrest, the firecrest {R. 

 Firecrest . ... , . .. . , , 



igmcapillus) is fairly common in the pine forests of a good many parts 



of Europe, often frequenting bushes and scrub as well as the larger branches of 

 trees. Pairing by the middle of April, its whereabouts is generally intimated by its 

 shrill call note, which is louder and less tremulous than that of the goldcrest. The 

 firecrest builds a similar nest to that of the goldcrest, but the eggs are of a warmer 

 coloration. It is a partial migrant, crossing the North Sea in autumn, but only in 

 very small numbers. Mr. Seebohm writes that these birds " twist in and out among 

 the slender twigs, sometimes with head down and sometimes with feet up; but by 

 far the most curious part of the performance is when they come to the end of the 

 twig and examine the under surface of the leaves at its extremity. They have 

 nothing to stand upon, so they flutter more like bees than birds from leaf to leaf, 

 their little wings beating as hard as they can go. The male has the forehead buff; 



