GOLPCKEST. 455 



suspended from a drooping spray, or not unfrequently as it glides like a 

 little meteor through the foliage in chase of its mate. The song is not a 

 very loud or long one, but is very melodious. Prominent amongst' the 

 songs of early spring are the notes of this delicate little species, which may 

 be heard waking the stillness of the fir-plantations early in February, and 

 long before the arrival of the Willow- Warblers which frequent the same 

 breeding-grounds. These are the breezy uplands where pine-woods and 

 fir-plantations abound, just on the borders of the moorlands; and in 

 shrubberies where the dense and impenetrable yew-foliage affords the 

 bird a requisite^helter. The nesting-site of the Goldcrest is generally 

 in the branches of pines, firs, or drooping yew-twigs, usually the very 

 extremity of the branch being selected where two or three twigs branch 

 out, and where the nest is wafted to and fro by every breath of air. The 

 end of a drooping branch of spruce is the site usually chosen. The nest is 

 almost spherical, slung under the branches like a hammock, and made 

 outwardly of the greenest moss, a few grass-stems, and hairs, and felted 

 with spiders' webs and sometimes a few lichens, and then usually lined 

 with a quantity of feathers. The foliage on the selected branches is care- 

 fully interwoven with the nest-materials, so that at a casual glance it 

 appears nothing but a tangled mass of vegetation. 



The eggs of the Goldcrest are from five to eight in number, sometimes 

 as many as ten. Usually they are a most delicate reddish white speckled 

 with tiny red markings, which often form a zone round the larger end of the 

 egg. Some specimens are pure and spotless white, whilst others have the 

 spots confluent and so numerous as to give the egg a uniform reddish or 

 yellowish-brown appearance. They measure from *6 to '52 inch in length, 

 and from '43 to '4 inch in breadth. The bird is a very close sitter; and 

 the female will often only quit her home when the branch which sustains 

 it is shaken violently ; and even when disturbed she will generally perch 

 some little distance away, but without betraying any great anxiety. 



When the young are able to quit the nest they still keep in company 

 with their parents, often forming a little party that keep together until the 

 following spring. Dixon writes : " It is in the balmy days of autumn 

 that we have the best opportunity of studying the habits of the Goldcrest. 

 It is then, and throughout the winter, that we see them in the hedgerows. 

 The birds almost invariably keep in pairs, and flit from bush to bush, now 

 in the centre, now on the topmost spray, then again diving into the leafy 

 depths, the only sign of their presence being the trembling twigs which 

 mark out their course. But it is in the birch-woods, when October's mellow 

 month paints those lovely trees in yellow of the brightest dye, that we 

 notice these charming little creatures in greatest abundance. Their low, 

 sweet, but singularly piercing call-notes are heard in all directions. Some- 

 times the sunlight catches their fiery streak of plumage on the crown of 



