20 



Regulus Cristatus. 



Golden- Crested Eegnhis. 



LOCAL NAMES. EGG OBSERVED. 



Gold Crest. May 13tli, 1865. 



Golden-Crested Wren. April 30th, 1866. 



April 28th, 1867. 



May 12th, 1869. 

 1870. 



A marvel of beauty is this exquisite little bird, and 

 happily still very cominon, and likely to remain so from its 

 quiet manners. 



It abounds in all our fir copses, and may occasionally be 

 seen in Savernake Forest. In hard winters I have noticed 

 it within a few yards of the town of Marlborough. 



This little bird, in common with the wren, has a curious 

 habit of building several nests before it finds one to suit it. 

 Mr. Bosworth Smith, in his list of the birds of Marlborough, 

 mentions a case of this. 



Four nests of this bird were built by one pair of birds 

 in the clump of fir trees at the Eight "Walks in Savernake 

 Forest. Of these only the last was inhabited. The Fire- 

 crested Regulus is, as far as I know, not a Marlborough 

 bird, but it is so similar to the first species that, except 

 when closely observed, it is quite possible for it to have 

 escaped observation. 



