S YL 



would be very apt to imagine that this delicately- 

 formed little creature must be the feeblest of all the 

 birds of Europe, and confined to sunny climates and 

 flowery banks. But the very reverse of this is the 

 case. The raven himself, generally as he is distri- 

 buted, and able as he is to bear the storm, is not 

 more hardy than the golden-crested wren, and the 

 labour which he has to perform is far less severe and 

 incessant. He finds large prey, and, having gorged 

 himself, he dozes, and he at all times uses the wing 

 as little as ever he can, except as a parachute to 

 soften his coming to the ground when he hops. This 

 little bird, on the other hand, is almost incessantly on 

 the wing, beating about among the buds arid leaves, 

 hanging by the feet in all sorts of positions, and cap- 

 turing minute insects and larvae with wonderful 

 adroitness, but always with the wings ready to act 

 and float it speedily through the air to any new part 

 that he may wish to occupy. In summer it is exclu- 

 sively a forest bird in most places ; but, as it inha- 

 bits to the full extent to which the forests reach in 

 the high latitudes of the north, it is sometimes found 

 in lonely bushes. It occurs in the wooded districts 

 of the whole range of Europe, and also of Asia, 

 being met with in the latter quarter from the woods 

 nearest to the Arctic Sea to the woods of India, 

 though it is rffct to be met with in the central deserts, 

 or anywhere in places of an arid character. It is 

 also found in America, though there, according to 

 Wilson, it is rather larger in size than it is in Europe ; 

 and, indeed, the one which he describes as being a 

 common migrant in the United States is, in all pro- 

 bability, the other species, the fiery-crested one ; 

 but there is little difference between them, except in 

 the colour of the middle feathers of the crest, the 

 shade of colour on the back, and the size. 



These birds are very numerous as well as very 

 generally distributed ; and in places where they 

 migrate they appear in great numbers on the middle 

 grounds of their range during the autumnal months. 

 With us in Britain they are found in most wooded 

 places, and they do not appear to have much of any 

 kind ot migration even within the country, except a 

 migration such as that which the redbreast has ; 

 namely, to the neighbourhood of houses in very severe 

 weather, and to the wood and the copse at other 

 times. It does not, however, come to the close 

 vicinity of houses so early or so regularly as the red- 

 breast, neither does it continue so long there, or enter 

 the house in search of food, though it is any thing 

 but a bird of shy disposition. It is a bird of much 

 more resource than the redbreast, adapted for seeking 

 its food at the tips of those slender twigs which would 

 not bear the weight of any other bird. Its conical 

 and keenly-pointed bill, too, is admirably adapted for 

 digging into the crevices of the young bark, or the 

 hybernacular scales of the young leaves, and brinin 

 out any larvae or insects that may be lurking there. The 

 pine family are very liable to have the terminal buds 

 attacked by insects, whose punctures let out the sub- 

 stance of the tree, which, instead of swelling the 

 buds and producing shoots, falls in an unseemly pow- 

 der upon it ; the tree, though it does not die imme- 

 diately, and may stand half living, half dead, grows 

 no more. This most commonly happens in trees which 

 have been only a few years planted where the soil is 

 too thin and dry ; and, if they have been once at- 

 tacked, there is no alternative but to grub them up, 

 for they never recover. The writer of this article has 

 NAT. HIST. VOL. III. 



V I A. 753 



seen a plantation of Scotch fir which, having suffered 

 an attack of this kind, remained more than twenty 

 years without increasing a single inch in height; and 

 indeed the progress seemed to be that the life of the 

 tree went out branch after branch, the lateral 

 branches continuing to make shoots of normal 

 length, just as one may see in a peach-tree attacked 

 by the aphis, until they were extinguished one by 

 one. 



The points of the twigs of these trees can scarcely 

 be reached by any other birds ; and thus the crested 

 wrens, small as they are, are of no little use in the 

 pine forests ; and we find that these forests are their 

 chief places of resort, though they are not confined 

 to them, and quit the more northerly ones in the 

 winter. They are also partial to oaks ; and as the 

 oak is never found in those very cold and upland 

 places where the pines are in general most abundant, 

 the birds remain in them during the winter, which is 

 the proper season for observing them, as in summer 

 they are concealed by the leaves. The mule is in 

 song only in the spring, and the song, though not 

 disagreeable, is feeble, so that it is not heard at any 

 distance, and can be barely heard at the foot of a 

 lofty tree when the bird is near the top. The nest is 

 elaborately constructed with moss or lichens, formed 

 and matted together with hair or wool, and lined with 

 small feathers. It is very warm and compact, but 

 without any dome, the entrance being at the top. 

 The eggs are rather numerous, being from six to ten 

 or eleven, of a white ground with a tinge of pink, 

 scarcely marked with any clouds or spots, but be- 

 coming gradually darker toward the thick end. They 

 are so small that it takes about fifty of them to weigh 

 an ounce. The parent is very attentive in feeding 

 the young birds, and continues her maternal care 

 under circumstances which evince an exceedingly 

 strong attachment. A remarkable instance of this is 

 mentioned by Colonel Montagu from his own accu- 

 rate observation. The pair had built their nest on 

 a fir-tree in his grounds ; and, though the male sung 

 regularly during the incubation, he ceased as soon as 

 the young were hatched. This is the case with almost 

 all birds in which the male takes any concern in 

 the rearing of the young ; but the notion that song 

 birds teach each other was not then exploded, and so 

 the Colonel took the nest and young when six days 

 old, and placed them in the window of his study, 

 with a view to ascertain the fact, and to observe tlte 

 mode of schooling, if such there should happen to be. 

 The male never uttered any sound during tlie course 

 of the experiment, except his chirping call-note when 

 the female came in sight; but the economy of the 

 birds was well observed. When the nest was placed 

 outside of the window, the birds came readily and 

 fed the young ones ; after this, it was placed inside 

 the window, and again toward the opposite part of 

 the room, the window being left open. In both situ- 

 ations, the female came fearlessly to the nest and fed 

 her little ones ; and the male accompanied her to the 

 outside, and waited there till she came out ; at first 

 he appeared with food in his bill as well as the 

 female ; but after a time he brought none, but merely 

 attended his partner. One part of this is so cha- 

 racteristic, that to abridge it would be injustice both 

 to the observer and the birds. " The female would 

 feed them at the table at which I sat, and even when 

 I held the nest in my hand if I remained motionless. 

 But on moving my hand one day, while she was on 

 BBB 



