9° British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



a third moustachial streak; the sides of neck and the shoulders washed with 

 sulphur yellow ; feathers of wings and tail brown, with yellowish- green edges ; the 

 greater and median wing-coverts tipped with white and the primary coverts dark 

 brown; under parts dull bufEsh white; bill blackish brown, feet dark brown, iris 

 hazel. 



The female is duller in colouring than the male and has a paler crest ; young 

 birds have the crown of the same colour as the rest of the upper surface, only 

 acquiring the yellow colouring after the first moult. 



The habits, haunts and even the nest and eggs of this species are extremely 

 like those of its near relative the Gold- crest ; the nest is similarlj- suspended and 

 is usually formed of moss felted with spiders' cocoons and thickly lined with 

 feathers. If the branch in which it is placed chances to be covered with lichens, 

 the Fire-crest utilizes these also in the outer walls ; in all probability this is done 

 simply because the material is at hand ; not, as has been suggested, with any idea 

 of imitating the surroundings of the nest, with a view to its concealment. That 

 the use of that which is most easily obtainable, because nearest, does often greatly 

 add to the difficulty of discovering a nest by the inexperienced collector, nobody 

 will deny; but to credit the little architect with deliberate design in the use of 

 such material is, in my opinion, utter nonsense : indeed I have seen the nest of a 

 Chaffinch in a hedge rendered most conspicuous by a covering of lichen from the 

 trunk of a tree a yard or two behind it, and a Wren's nest built of coarse dead 

 grass and standing out prominently from the mossy trunk of a tree : both of these 

 nests are in my collection. 



Speaking of the habits of the Fire-crest, Seebohm says : — " Their presence is 

 at once betrayed by their soft notes, a monotonous zit-zit, which is continually 

 uttered as they are busily employed feeding on insects under the leaves of the 

 overhanging trees, and becomes a rapid z-z-z-zit as they chase each other from tree 

 to tree, or fly off in alarm at your movements. If you remain perfectly still they 

 will sometimes come and feed close to you, occasionally two or three of them 

 within a few feet of your head. It is very curious then to watch their movements. 

 They twist in and out among the slender twigs, sometimes with head down and 

 sometimes with feet up; but by far the most curious part of the performance is 

 when they come to the end of the twig and examine the under surface of the 

 leaves at its extremity. They have nothing to stand upon; so they flutter more 

 like bees than birds from leaf to leaf, their little wings beating so fast that they 

 look transparent, their bodies all the time being nearly perpendicular. Of course 

 it is only on large-leafed oaks, and the shrubs that form the underwood in the 

 garden, that you can examine them closely. In the pine-forest, when all 



