GRASSHOPPER WARBLER GOLDEN- CRESTED WREN. 51 



threading its way with the greatest rapidity along the roots 

 and branches of the bushy jungle it inhabits. 

 Habitat Southern Europe. 



GENUS XXIV REGULUS (KING BIRD). 



SPECIES 50 THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. 



Regulus cristatus. Ray. 

 Roilelet ordinaire. Temm. 



THE goldcrest is not only the most diminutive of our native 

 birds, but also one of the most beautiful, and worthy indeed 

 to top that apex of which the queenly hooper might be the 

 base, already honoured with its regal crown of rich orange, 

 yellow, and velvetty black. 



Widely distributed over our island, the goldcrest gives the 

 preference to young plantations, woods, and shrubberies, 

 where we observe it during all seasons, but chiefly in autumn, 

 when, accompanied by its young brood, it makes the branches 

 of the old pines and hawthorns melodious by its singularly 

 low, sweet song, which sounds like an echo of some distant 

 melody. Indeed, we are most inclined to name it the humming- 

 bird of our cold latitudes, as the sun, glancing upon the yel- 

 lowish plumage and golden crest, when flitting from pine to 

 pine, makes it rather resemble some creation of the insect 

 world, with its song, ceaseless humming, than the smallest 

 and most pleasing of our warblers. The nest is usually of a 

 penduline form, remarkably elegant in its structure, and con- 

 cealed by overhanging foliage. On being discovered in a low 

 situation, and approached, the female flits about the vicinity, 

 uttering her weak, sibilous cry, as if, to her at least, 



" Her eggs within the nest repose, 

 Like relics in an urn." 



Indigenous. 



E2 



