84 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



merited by mealworms, caterpillars, moths, flies, cockroaches, earwigs, and spiders ; 

 these last, which are rarely mentioned in works on British Ornithology, form a 

 considerable portion of the diet of all Insectivorous birds ; they are not only easy 

 to capture, easy of digestion (even seeming to have a beneficial effect upon birds 

 when out of health) but they are relished much more than any form of insect or 

 its larvae, not excluding mealworms: centipedes also are eaten with avidity, but 

 not millipedes, and many birds refuse to touch woodlice or only kill and 

 leave them. 



The Dartford Warblers which Montagu kept in confinement were taken from 

 the nest and reared by hand. These birds " began to sing with the appearance of 

 their first mature feathers, and continued in song all the month of October." 



Family— TURDW^. Subfamily— S YL VI IN^. 



The Golden-Crested Wren, 



Regulus cristatus, K. L. KoCH. 



PERHAPS to the case of few species are the observations of Herr Gatke more 

 applicable than to that of the Gold-crest when he says, speaking of the countless 

 myriads of birds which pass over Heligoland on migration, and furthermore of this 

 very species : — " The east-to-west migration of the Golden- crested Wren in October 

 1882, extended in one continuous column, not only across the east coast of England 

 and Scotland, but even up to the Fseroe Islands. When one thinks of numbers 

 of individuals such as these, which cannot be grasped by human intelligence, it 

 seems absurd to talk of a conceivable diminution in the number of birds being 



