52 
THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT. 
artful creature, skulking in tlie thickest part of a bush : and will 
sing at a yard distance, provided it be concealed. I was obliged 
to get a person to go on the other side of the hedge where it 
haunted : and then it would run, creeping like a mouse, before 
us for a hundred yards together, througli the bottom of the 
thorns ; yet it would not come into fair sight : but in a morning 
THE G()I,den-(:rowned wri;n. 
early, and when undisturbed, it sings on the top of a twig, gaping 
and shivering with its wings. Mr. Eay himself had no know- 
ledge of this bird, but received his account from Mr. Johnson, 
who apparently confounds it with the Reguli non cristati, from 
which it is very distinct. 
The fiy-catcher {Stoparola, Eay) has not yet appeared ; it 
usually breeds in my vine. The redstart begins to sing : its 
note is short and imperfect, but is continued till about the 
middle of June. The willow- wrens (the smaller sort) are horrid 
