and Titmice 123 



used to scald them, and squeeze out the insides, which 

 come away quite easily from within the skin. 



The little gold-crest used to cling to the bars of 

 his cage and peck out the contents as I held the skin 

 in my fingers. 



Such an operation may sound very nasty, but 

 food for birds must be studied as much as food for 

 human beings ; and squeezing out mealworms' in- 

 teriors isn't half so nasty as doing something of that 

 sort to rabbits that are to be cooked for our dinners. 

 " Oh ! la, la ! " as the French say. 



The structure of a golden-crested wren's nest is very 

 wonderful — quite as wonderful as that of another 

 kind of Wren, of which there was only one, and that 

 was Regulus Christopher os, which, though at first sight 

 may appear to mean a crested wren, does not. This 

 was Christopher Wren, who built a wonderful nest, 

 usually known as St. Paul's Cathedral. Well ! as I 

 was saying, the nest of Regulus cristatus is in its way 

 equally marvellous. Not so lasting, it is true, as that 

 of K. christopheros, but the architecture thereof is as 

 much to be admired and wondered at. 



R. christopheros, like the London sparrow, chose 

 to build in the great metropolis ; though, of course, 

 when first constructed, it was more rural in its sur- 

 roundings than to-day. 



R. cristatus distinctly prefers the country, where 

 in firs, and yews, and cedars, he finds that thickly- 

 needled and flattened foliage, on branches beneath 

 which he can hide his nest — a Turkish coffee-cup of 

 moss, spiders' webs, and lichens. 



