WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



downhearted when he is by. In summer the 

 gold-crest (like his royal brother, the ruby-crown) 

 is a fly-catcher, expertly seizing insects on the 

 wing; and on warm days in winter he forages in 

 the tree-tops for such moths and beetles as are 

 abroad; but necessarily he must subsist chiefly 

 on the larvae which hibernate under the rotten 

 bark, and upon insects' eggs. Thus he is helped 

 to many a meal by the sapsuckers and tomtits, 

 whose stronger bills tear open the recesses where 

 the larvae lie. In summer the kinglets retreat 

 to boreal regions to rear their young ; but we know 

 very little about their domestic life. Just before 

 they leave us in the spring I may, perhaps, have 

 the rare treat to hear a long way off the resonant 

 song of this minute minstrel bold and clear, 

 carrying me away aloft like that of the English 

 skylark. 

 Another personification of 



" Contented wi' little, and canty wi' mair," 



is the brown creeper, whose bill is curved and long 

 and tender, so that he can do very little digging 

 for himself, but follows in the track of the wood- 

 peckers and nuthatches, and picks up the grubs 

 which their vigorous beaks have dislodged, or 



m 58 



