168 ^ Siluiadcv. 



how these delicate and fragile-looking creatures can accomplish 

 so long and weary a flight over so rough and stormy a sea as a 

 passage over the North Sea in autumn generally is, as I know 

 by experience ; but that they do manage it cannot be doubted, 

 as they have been repeatedly watched both on passage and on 

 arrival. It prefers fir plantations, but may be seen in hedgerows 

 and gardens ; it is incessant in motion, hopping from branch to 

 branch, now clinging to the under boughs of the firs with back 

 downwards, in search of its insect food wherein it closely resem- 

 bles the titmice, with which it often associates now hovering 

 over a twig or flower, suspended in the air, and fluttering its 

 wings, and all the while singing melodiously; wherein it re- 

 sembles the little warblers last described, and so forming a link 

 between the two families. Its colours are brownish-green and 

 greenish-yellow, while its head is ornamented with a stripe of 

 long silky feathers, yellow tipped with orange, forming a golden 

 crown. It abounds in this county, as I know by personal 

 observation, and it sometimes breeds in my garden, suspending 

 its nest below the bough of a yew-tree. There is another species, 

 of whose occurrence in Wilts I have no certain tidings, with 

 which it may easily be confounded, known as the ' Fire-crested 

 Regulus,' or 'Firecrest' (Regulus ignicapillus). It may, how- 

 ever, on examination be distinguished ; for, as Mr. Harting con- 

 cisely points out, ' The Firecrest invariably has a white line both 

 above and below the eye, and a black line running through tho 

 eye. Hence Temminck calls it Roitelet a triple bandeau. These 

 three lines are absent in the Goldcrest.'* 



PARIM: (THE TITMICE). 



Exceedingly interesting are all the members of this pert, active 

 family, ever restless, creeping and running and flitting from 

 bough to bough in quest of insect food, careless whether they 

 are hanging beneath or climbing along, or running up or down 

 the branch; hardy too, for they are all permanent residents 

 * ' Birds of Middlesex,' p. 5G. 



