GOLDEN-CRESTED WHEN. 453 



butterfly-net. Mr. Stevenson mentions a great irruption 

 near Great Yarmouth on the authority of Capt. Lorige. 

 That gentleman, November 2nd, 1862, found a bush 

 " literally covered " with Golden-crested Wrens : " there 

 was hardly an inch of twig that had not a bird upon it," and 

 he computed their number as between two and three hundred 

 at least. The next morning all were gone. In October, 

 1863, a similar arrival was observed at Wick (Zool. p. 8879). 

 Other instances might be given, but it is enough to add that 

 the movement has been observed so far to the south as the 

 coast of Dorsetshire (Zool. p. 2020), and Mr. Cordeaux in 

 his recently published ' Birds of the Humber District ' says 

 that, on the coast of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, the 

 autumnal migration of this species is as well established as 

 that of the Woodcock, and from its preceding that bird by 

 a few days it is known as the " Woodcock-pilot," while the 

 North- Sea fishermen have told him that it often alights on 

 their smacks and in foggy weather perishes by hundreds. 

 As might be expected it is constantly benighted during 

 migration and both on these coasts and elsewhere it is often 

 attracted by the lighthouses, fluttering in crowds round their 

 lanterns and found in numbers dead beneath them. Mr. 

 Gray seems to be the only observer so fortunate as to have 

 noticed the return -journey, no doubt because there are far 

 fewer birds to perform it, but he says that large flights 

 suddenly appear on the east coast of Scotland in April, and 

 actually swarm in some parts of Haddingtonshire. 



The wanderings of this bird lead it sometimes far beyond 

 its usual range, and it is said to occur not unfrequently in 

 the Faeroes. According to Herr Collett a flock appeared at 

 Vadso in East Finmark in April 1853, but commonly it does 

 not go further north in Scandinavia than the fir-forests 

 reach, and there, as with us, it would seem to be generally 

 resident those remaining in the north being probably the 

 adults, while the young migrate southward. Herr Meves 

 found it pretty common in several places in north-western 

 Russia, but Pallas never met with it in any part of that 

 country and only once in Siberia. In Amoor-land it is said 



