7) 
9) 
is only to visit another pine growth situated in non-evergreen woods. Its wanderings are most 
extended in the late autumn and spring; and it is then to be found in small groves of pine or fir 
trees standing in the open country and miles away from the large forests, and also in large 
gardens. They hurry uneasily through the non-evergreen woods and fruit-gardens which lie 
between the pine woods they visit on their wanderings, and are only at ease when in these latter ; 
and they also hurry with greater speed over fields or any treeless tract they have to pass. Often 
a small flock settles in a small isolated pine wood, remaining there throughout the winter, and 
wandering through it day after day till the spring, when they return to the large woods to breed. 
. . . They inhabit the dense old growth of fir and pine forests where the younger growth has 
shot up some ten feet or more, frequenting the tops of the trees, but often descending into the 
lower growth, and, in spring particularly, often going on to the ground. They are found much 
more seldom in non-evergreen woods than the Cole Tit, with which they often consort, and are, 
indeed, except during the breeding-season, seldom or never alone, but form family parties with 
Golden-crested Wrens and Cole Tits, of large dimensions, and are often joined by stray Creepers 
and Nuthatches, who make the daily excursions with them during winter through the forests as 
if they all belonged to one family, of which the Crested Tits appear to be the leaders; for all 
attend to their call-note and follow them wherever they go. I have never seen them in the 
undergrowth of non-evergreen woods; and when passing through these they frequent only the 
tops of the highest trees, without looking out for food.” 
Mr. Robert Collett also remarks on the habits of the Crested Tit in consorting with other 
small birds during its migration, and says that ‘‘ Professor Rasch has observed that it is generally 
the leader of these parties, and that the others obey its call-note, and, further, that the Crested 
Tit keeps watch, and, when a bird of prey or a man approaches, it always appears to give the 
alarm first, and its note of warning is observed by the rest, and when it flies off they follow its” 
lead. He further states that it always nests in conifer woods and seldom makes its nest in a non- 
evergreen tree, generally boring its own hole. He gives the number of eggs as generally five, 
but sometimes four or six.” 
Dresser, who has had opportunities of observing this bird in Finland, only met with it on 
two occasions in Southern Finland during the breeding-season, but did not succeed in finding its 
nest in that country. In Styria, however, when collecting in company with the late E. 
Seidensacher, of Cilli, he took two nests, on the 17th April, 1866, not far from the town of + 
Cilli; and from his note-book we extract the following observations :—< After walking some 
distance we (Seidensacher, myself, and a Croatian servant) got into a rocky and undulating 
country (though still in the valley) covered with beech, oak, and some few fir and alder trees. 
Here in a low swampy spot we found a nest of Lophophanes cristatus in an old alder tree, placed 
in what seemed to be an old Woodpecker’s hole, not above ten feet from the ground. On 
tapping the tree with the axe the old bird flew out, and, settling close to me on a low tree, 
hopped about the branches lamenting loudly the intrusion to which it was being subjected. I 
could easily have shot it, but did not wish to destroy life needlessly. We plugged the hole up 
with a little soft moss to keep the eggs from being damaged, and then with a few skilfully 
administered blows with the axe our man soon cut a hole close to the nest, large enough to 
admit my hand, and then, as I had never before had the opportunity of taking the eges of the 
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