SGTPT 153 



crest comes the woodcock is not far behind it. Not only 

 is the goldcrest the least of English birds, but there are 

 many humming-birds which reach a larger size. It 

 takes just half-a-dozen full-grown goldcrests to weigh an 

 ounce. It is indeed marvellous that so frail a creature 

 should ever pass in safety the eight hundred miles of sea 

 that part us from the Norway coast. 



In spite of the fact that enormous multitudes of this 

 " Tot-o'er-seas," as it is called on the Northumbrian 

 coast, visit us in the winter, it is here a permanent 

 resident. There are many parts of the country where, 

 in almost any clump of firs or larches, it may be found 

 throughout the year. But its diminutive size, its low 

 sweet song, its feeble call notes, are all somewhat insig- 

 nificant, and its tiny figure might easily be overlooked. 

 It is even no uncommon visitor to the garden, not only 

 in the open country, but on the skirts at least of the 

 town ; and if quietly approached will swing at its ease 

 within a yard or so of the observer, displaying every now 

 and then that splendid streak of yellow on its crown, 

 reddening into rich orange down the centre, which has 

 earned it so appropriate a name. A dainty bird ; and 

 its nest a cradle of green moss, dotted over with grey 

 points of lichen, slung like a hammock underneath some 

 drooping bough is a work of art hardly less beautiful 

 than the masterpiece even of the humming-bird itself. 



The woodcock is a shy, night-feeding bird, that in the 

 daytime seldom stirs beyond the limits of the covert. 

 The presence of the goldcrest lends but little to the 

 landscape. But among these wandering strangers there 



