THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN 55 



adult goldcrests should not have fed those in the nest as well as the 

 two which had escaped ; probably another pair would have done so, 

 for I have often adopted some such means to protect birds of various 

 kinds, and generally with success. 



There is no prettier sight to be seen in the bird world than a 

 family of young goldcrests when fledged. They are so ethereal in 

 appearance just like animated puff-balls : and when the whole brood 

 is in your hand, their combined weight is as nothing! Their call- 

 note is, however, loud and penetrating, and may be heard some 

 distance away. As is the case with the common wren, the goldcrest's 

 voice is greatly disproportionate to its size, especially when young. 



Once when creeping with bent back beneath some young conifers, 

 hearing a shrill " cheep, cheep " above my head I suddenly straightened 

 myself and found I was face to face with seven of these tiny birds 

 huddled together on a branch, waiting to be fed. I wish they had 

 stayed, but the moment that our mutual surprise was over, the dainty 

 vision fled in seven different directions. 



Lord Lilford tells how he once came upon a dozen goldcrests 

 " clustered together for warmth beneath the snow-laden bough of an 

 old yew-tree, to the under surface of which the uppermost birds were 

 clinging by their feet whilst the others clung to them and to one an- 

 other so as to form a close feathery ball." He then says that, taking 

 this cluster of birds for an old nest, he touched it with his stick, where- 

 upon they dispersed, but without alarm, and no doubt soon resumed 

 their previous formation, which he was sorry to have disturbed. 1 



One day late in October I was surprised and delighted to see 

 eight or ten goldcrests suddenly invade one of my aviaries which 

 contained four short-eared owls. Luckily for the invaders the owls 

 were not hungry, but merely interested spectators. With faces 

 screwed half round, till their eyes were one above the other in a 

 vertical line a position which must give to these wise-looking birds 

 such a varied point of view the owls intently followed every move- 



1 Birds of Northamptonshire, vol. i. p. 135. 



