

but one or two eggs. Nine appears to be the number usually deposited ; but occasionally one or 

 two more are found in one nest. I have now before me a very beautiful nest taken here a few 

 days ago, and which is still attached to the bough under which it was built. The entire 

 structure is carefully fastened with spiders' webs to four of the long spine-covered pendent twigs 

 of the fir, these twigs being carefully interwoven in the outer portion of the nest. The entire 

 outer structure is composed of green moss intermixed with grey lichens, carefully felted together 

 into a firm cup-shaped structure, the various portions of moss being apparently interwoven and 

 strengthened with spiders' webs. The outer walls are most carefully finished and rounded off on 

 the edge, and the entire structure is exceedingly neat. The inner lining is composed of feathers 

 of various sorts, amongst which several of the red breast-feathers of the Linnet are most con- 

 spicuous. The nest is so carefully interwoven under the branch that only a small entrance 

 remains free between two twigs to afford the bird ingress and egress. In size the nest measures 

 as follows : — Entire width 90 millimetres, width of the cup inside 45, entire height outside 70, 

 inside 40. 



Mr. Sachse informs me that the amount of feathers used in the lining of the nest depends 

 entirely on the state of the weather at the time when the bird is building ; for if the weather is 

 dull and rainy but few, if any, feathers are used, as they cannot be made use of when wet ; 

 whereas during fine weather many feathers are collected for the lining. This I find fully 

 confirmed by my own experience, as all the nests I examined yesterday, which must have been 

 built during the late rainy weather, are utterly or nearly devoid of the usual lining of feathers, 

 whereas those taken by Mr. Sachse about ten days previously are well lined with them. Another 

 curious circumstance observed by Mr. Sachse is the fact that during cold weather all the eggs 

 deposited have an exceedingly thin and fragile shell compared with those laid during fine warm 

 weather. The birds appear, when they have used a tree once for the purpose of nidification, to 

 return thither again and again ; and when once a nest has been found in a favourite tree it may 

 be almost taken for granted that another will be found in the following year in the same tree, 

 and often on the same branch, even if the former nest has been taken or destroyed. The Jay 

 appears to be a most active agent in the destruction of the nests of this species ; and we found 

 many nests which had been pulled out and the eggs probably devoured by this arrant egg-thief, 

 who does more damage than all the village lads, who cannot well be prevented from bird-nesting, 

 and who appear to take not a few eggs of the present species as well as of the various other small 

 birds which inhabit these woods. 



The eggs of the present species may readily be distinguished from those of the Golden- 

 crested Wren by their reddish tinge, which replaces the brownish yellow markings in the eggs 

 of the latter species. They are about similar in size, and when unblown are not so very easily 

 distinguished, as the yelk gives a faint reddish tinge to the Golden-crested Wren's eggs. In 

 some eggs of the Fire-crested Wren in my collection the minute reddish dots are collected 

 towards the larger end, leaving the rest of the egg white with but little tinge of red ; and several 

 have one or two black streaks at the larger end. The full number of eggs deposited is usually 

 nine or ten ; but in some instances one or two more have been found. I have before me a series 

 of over seventy eggs of the present species, all of which may be readily distinguished from those 



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