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THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. 

 (Regulus cristatus.) 



THIS is the very smallest of our British birds, and 

 indeed of all European species. It is found generally 

 throughout Great Britain, and it has increased in the 

 north greatly of late years owing to the greater 

 cultivation of larch and fir-trees. The numbers of these 

 Wrens are augmented often in autumn by great flocks 

 that come to our eastern coast from the Continent. A 

 migration wave of this sort, Mr. Howard Saunders told 

 of, which lasted 92 days, and reached from the Channel 

 to the Faroe Islands. Another migration in 1883 lasted 

 82 days, and one, the following year, 87 days. On such 

 occasions bushes in gardens on the coast are covered 

 with birds as with a swarm of bees; crowds flutter round 

 the lighthouse lanterns, and often come to grief there, 

 and weary little travellers climb about the rigging of 

 fishing-smacks in the North Sea. 



The Golden-Crested Wren is even smaller than the 

 Common Wren, but its feathers are more flossy. It 

 has on its crown a tongue-shaped patch of warm saffron 

 yellow edged with black. The whole of the rest of its 

 coat is of a plain greenish gray, which is lighter on the 

 under parts of his body. The colour of the wings is 

 also sober, the feathers having a lighter edge ; the little 

 beak is thin and pointed, the legs nearly black. The 

 cunningly built nest is placed in the fir-trees where it 

 can w 7 ith difficulty be discovered. The eggs, which 

 number six, occasionally eleven of the size of peas are 



