THE WREN. 
83 
in small companies, hunting among the branches, hanging head downwards, and 
flitting backwards and forwards, uttering meanwhile its call-note. It is beautifully 
coloured in grey, olive-green, and white, with a very conspicuous yellow crest, 
which is lemon-yellow in the female, and has the honour of being the smallest 
British bird, five and a half full-grown birds of this species only weighing, it is 
said, one ounce. Its nest is a beautiful structure, usually suspended and enwoven 
among the boughs of a spruce or silver fir, of a globular form, with an opening 
at the top, and holds from five to eight cream-coloured eggs. This bird is of a 
family distinct from that of the common Wren, and seems a link between the warblers 
and the tits. It is perfectly hardy, and seems to revel in severe weather. Many stay 
with us all the year, changing at times their locality, while many more come over 
to join these in October. It breeds early, and has probably two broods annually, 
as we once saw a small family of gold crests, five or six in number, sitting on 
the low branches of a fir-tree on a lawn in July. The parent birds flitted back¬ 
wards and forwards, almost brushing us with their wings as they passed, so 
fearless were they, while feeding the little ones. These sat and hopped up and 
down the branch, little woolly balls with grey heads, and no crests as yet, and 
absurdly short tails, uttering “ tzit, tzit, tzit” as the parents dropped food into 
their gaping mouths. It was a beautiful sight, and well repaid the spectator for 
the protection granted birds in the garden which these diminutive “ little kings ” 
haunted. 
