22 Jfinstrels of the Winter. 



of rejoicing. Still with all the dulness of the time, some songs 

 prevail, and when the resident birds have played their parts in 

 the meagre wintry chorus, there are many sojourners that have 

 a song to sing, and a few words will suffice to enumerate all 

 but a few that make themselves conspicuous by their bravery 

 and gaiety. 



Let us not forget how courageously the smallest of British 

 birds defies the winter, and is always in a merry mood. The 

 common wren (Motacilla troglodytes, Linn.) is as common in 

 the gardens at Stoke Newington as the robin and the thrush. 

 On a sharp winter it is a common occurrence to see half a 

 dozen at a time scuttling along the top fringe of the ivy fence, 

 or bustling about among the dead leaves under the evergreen 

 shrubs, looking like mice, and uttering a very mouse-like 

 squeak, which, like a stray primrose or lingering chrysan- 

 themum, is the more welcome, because there is then little 

 competition, and we are glad of any noise out of doors that is 

 not positively discordant. Neville Wood does real justice to 

 this miniature of a songster. He says, "the song is short, 

 shrill, and remarkably loud in proportion to the size of the 

 bird. It may perhaps be ranked amongst the most trivial of 

 our feathered choristers, but' the notes are more prized than 

 they would otherwise be on account of their being frequently 

 heard in mid-winter, when a mere scream would almost 

 seem sweet, especially if it proceeded from the throat of so tiny 

 a bird as the ivy wren. And thus insignificant and humble 

 (with regard to musical merit) as are its strains, I always listen 

 to them with delight in the dreary seasons, though we are apt 

 to overlook them altogether in fairer times." The gold-crowned 

 wren {liecjulus auroccvpillus) I have seen but once here, and 

 that was in the winter of 1858, during a dark drizzly day, 

 when the bird appeared suddenly toying among the branches 

 of a thorn near the window, as if wholly unconscious of the 

 cold, though it is known to be the most susceptible to cold of 

 all the Brit isli birds, and looking for the moment as if a stuffed 

 humming bird had suddenly come to life and escaped from a 

 glass shade. After sporting among the shrubs for several 

 minutes, this u winged gem," remarkable for its minuteness, 

 pertness, and fche brilliant colour of its crest, made its way in 

 ■•t< of jerking flight across the garden, shone for a few 

 seconds like a flame <>u fche ivy, and then with a small sound 

 like fche crealdngof a wheel at a distance" made its way towards 

 1 '"' distanl meadows. I have rarely travelled far in winter in 

 any pari of Herts or Surrey without seeing one or more speci- 

 mens of this pretty bird in the course of a journey ; but I never 

 heard it really sang until after the. turn of the year, and then to 

 understand the scope and character of its song the listener 



