4f^ CLASS AVES. 



hole in the side, which the female takes care to close when 

 she is obliged to quit the eggs or the young ones, to provide 

 for her own sustenance, or any other wants. The brood 

 consists of four or five eggs, a little larger than peas. They 

 are white, picked out with reddish. The young ones do not 

 quit this cradle of their infancy, until they are able to fly as 

 well as the father and mother, and to follow them in their 

 wandering courses. 



In autumn these little families quit the woods, and extend 

 themselves in our orchards and gardens, where they find 

 subsistence until their departure, which now draws near. 

 Then these birds are seen in perpetual motion, and even when 

 they do take a moment of repose, a sort of trembling is 

 observed in the tail. 



This bird is not more bulky than the gold-crested wren, 

 but it has a more variegated and elegant shape. 



The opposite figure is from a specimen brought from Chili 

 by Lord Byron, and presented by him to the British Museum. 

 Mr. Gray has named it from the noble donor, Byron's Golden 

 Crested Wren, to distinguish it from the European species. 



The upper part of this bird is dark green ; on the top of 

 the head is a bright red streak, and over the eye is a broadish 

 lunated yellowish white streak ; the breast and belly is yel- 

 low ; the quills of the tail and wings are black, and a band of 

 that colour, broader at the sides than the middle, passes 

 round the breast ; the smaller wing coverts and the throat 

 are white. 



The Common-Wren is placed in the subdivision Troglo- 

 DiTEs, by our author, a name derived from the Greek, and 

 signifying an inhabitant of clefts and caverns. 



After the gold-crested wren, this is the smallest of our 

 European birds, being little more than four inches long. It 

 is known under as many different names as it inhabits different 

 countries. 



The wren lives on worms, on flies, and other small insects. 



