348 SYLVIADJ5. 



structure, and without any apparent power of endurance, 

 these birds brave the severity of our rigorous winters, and 

 are among the earliest breeders in spring, the invitation 

 songs of the males being frequently heard by the end of 

 February. The nest is placed under a branch of a fir, and 

 generally towards the end of the bough, being supported 

 by two or three of the laterally diverging and pendant 

 twigs, which are interwoven with the moss of which the 

 outside of the nest is principally composed. The nest thus 

 sheltered by the fir-branch above it, as shown in the vig- 

 nette at the end, is frequently lined with feathers ; and, 

 both for security and architecture, is one of the prettiest 

 examples to be found among our indigenous nest-makers. 

 So confident and bold, also, is the female when sitting on 

 her nest, as to allow very close observation without flying 

 off. She lays from six to ten eggs, of a pale reddish white, 

 six lines long and five lines in diameter. Colonel Mon- 

 tagu, who timed the visits of a female to her nest of eight 

 young ones which he kept in his room, found that she 

 came once in each minute and a half or two minutes, or, 

 upon an average, thirty-six times in an hour ; and this 

 continued full sixteen hours in a day. The male would 

 not venture into the room ; yet the female would feed her 

 young while the nest was held in the hand. Mr. Selby 

 says, in reference to the early breeding of this species, that 

 he has known the young birds to be fully fledged as early 

 as the third week of April. 



The Gold Crest appears to be distributed generally over 

 the whole of the south of England and in Wales, and is 

 mentioned by Mr. Thompson, and others, as common and 

 indigenous to Ireland. In the counties north of London it 

 is also plentiful ; and on the eastern coast, at the end of 

 autumn, this species occasionally arrives in flocks. Mr. 



