357 
it is here to-day and off to-morrow ; but disappears in the begin- 
ning of September. Mr. Bartlett informs me that the mouths of 
the young of fruit-eating warblers are pink or flesh-coloured ; 
the young of the insect-eating warblers, on the contrary, have 
the inside of their mouths yellow. 
Golden-Crested Eegulus, p. 53. — Mr. G. Napier writes : — 
The golden-crested regulus {llegidus cristatus) is a constant 
resident in Britain. It forms a compact nest of moss, which 
in texture resembles that of the finch's. It is often adorned 
with lichens, as well as bound together with spiders' webs, and 
the inside is lined with feathers. One nest I possess has a 
turkey feather as a valve or trap door cunningly placed by the 
bird at the entrance of the nest. This bird usually suspends 
its nest from a branch of an overhanging yew or fir-tree. It is 
of a pork-pie shape ; I have one as open as a chaffinch's. The 
eggs are most commonly of a nearly uniform pale yellow buff, 
but some have a white ground, with spots of dark purple and 
dark red ; others are very nearly white, like some varieties cf 
the eggs of the long-tailed tit. 
" The nest of the wood- wren (R. sihilatrix) is a doms sti'iicture, 
the entrance to which is usually from the side. In shape it 
resembles that of the dipper, for it has a flattened appearance ; 
it is made of the stems of the bedstraw intermixed with grass, 
moss, and dead leaves. The lining in both the nests I have is 
of grass ; but sometimes horsehair is used. The ground colour 
of the egg is white or yellowish white, with spots of ash-blue 
and umber distinctly defined, and scattered all over. Some have 
a zone of spots towards the large end, but in others the spots are 
equally distributed." 
Toads, Frogs, and N'ewts, p. 54. — The poirds in the brick- 
fields about London produce toads and frogs in great quantities. 
The only sale for frogs and snakes is at the Zoological Gardens, 
where they are used for feeding purposes. The market price of 
frogs averages M. per dozen. 
The new snake-eating snake, Oj^hiopJiagus elapf^, a kind of 
cobra from India, is raising the price of common snakes in the 
market. He has devoured no less than eighty-two common 
snakes between March and November. 
I do not believe in the " shower of frogs " story. 
When frogs get " legged," from being loggerheads or tadpoles, 
they are wonderfully migratory things, like eels, always on the 
move. A very remarkable plague of frogs occurred on the flat 
lands near Windsor in June 1875. 
