THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN 29 



some material resembling the colour of the objects around it, such 

 as green moss if built among ivy, or brown lichen if built on a rock 

 or in the fork of a withered branch. The male sings sweetly in 

 summer, pairing taking place about the middle of spring, nesting 

 being effected in April ; the eggs are six or eight in number, white, 

 speckled with reddish brown. Two broods are produced annually. 

 The colour of the birds is reddish brown, but white and pied 

 varieties are sometimes seen. 



The GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN (Regulus auricapillus) , Fig. 26, 

 known also as Golden-crested Regulus, or Kinglet, is a beautiful 

 bird belonging to the family Sylviadae, distinguished by an orange 



FIG. 26. THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN (RIGHT-HAND FIGURE), AND LONG- 

 TAILED TITMOUSE (LEFT-HAND FIGURE). 



crest. It is the smallest of British birds, being only about 3! 

 in. in length. The most usual haunts of the golden-crested 

 wren are tall trees, particularly the oak, the yew, and the various 

 species of fir and pine. During the greater part of the year 

 it haunts tall trees, prying closely about the trunks and branches 

 of firs, in woods and plantations, but in autumn and winter it visits 

 gardens, even in the suburbs of large towns, and is very fearless of 

 observers, allowing of close approach while it is engaged in hunting 

 for insects in the stems and branches of trees. In the noontide 

 of a hot summer or autumn day the little golden-crested wren flits 

 noiselessly from spray to spray, with unwearied activity, in search 

 of its food, fluttering over the slenderest twigs like a butterfly, 

 now on one side, now on the other, sometimes above the branch, 

 sometimes beneath, hanging with its head downwards, often at 

 the end of it, suspended in the air by its tiny wings, which it quivers 

 without the slightest sound, and its chirp is so low as only to betray 



