5°4 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
a mouse. Its call-note is loud but monotonous. The hedge-sparrow is very 
subject to variation of plumage, specimens being often seen prettily pied with 
white, sometimes symmetrically arranged, while pure white specimens arc 
occasionally met with. The adult has the head and sides of the neck bluish 
grey, purest in the breeding-season; while the wings and tail are dusky brown, 
the back reddish brown streaked with darker brown, and the chin and throat 
grey, the lower-parts being white. Altogether, thirteen representatives of the 
genus are known. 
<"5 
While some ornithologists refer the accentors to one distinct family 
( Accentoridce) and the goldcrests to a second ( Regulidce ), we prefer 
to follow Professor Newton in including both in the same family as the warblers, 
as is done in his edition of YarrelVs British Birds. In addition to their small 
size, the goldcrests ( Regulus ) are characterised by the straight and slender beak, 
which is compressed towards the point, where it is notched. The basally-placed 
nostrils are covered by a single bristly feather, and there are numerous bristles 
at the rictus of the gape. The rather long wings have the first primary nearly 
half the length of the second, which is somewhat shorter than the third, and this 
exceeded in length by the fourth and fifth. The tail has twelve feathers, and is 
slightly forked; the legs are long and slender, with elongated claws. An inhabitant 
of the pine-forests of Europe, the tiny goldcrest (JR. cristatus ) is an exceedingly 
hardy bird, contriving to obtain subsistence when others are famishing with 
hunger. During the summer months it haunts gardens and the skirts of woods, 
building its beautiful little nest upon the under surface of some coniferous tree 
at very varying distances from the ground; the nest itself — an exquisite 
structure, chiefly of the softest moss and lined with the most delicate of feathers 
—being sometimes finished as early as the middle of March, while fresh eggs may 
be taken in the middle of July; considerable latitude thus existing in the breeding- 
season. The brooding female is never long away from the nest, and, even if 
disturbed, only flits anxiously about the tree which contains her treasure, 
uttering a low, troubled cry so long as she is conscious of being under observation. 
If surveillance be removed, the little bird slips hastily on to her eggs, and probably 
remains in the nest, trusting to the decorative skill with which she has adorned its 
exterior to render her detection difficult. The eggs are white, suffused with reddish 
buff*. Montagu found that the female goldcrest would even venture into a room in 
order to feed her captive young, and this not once in a way but all through the day. 
When a brood of young goldcrests is going to roost, a scramble takes place among 
the young for the warmest place; all roosting in a row, and each endeavouring to get 
an inside position. Although many of the goldcrests haunting the English hedge¬ 
rows in winter have been bred in the country, the largest proportion congregating 
in the coverts at that season are birds which have crossed the North Sea; thousands 
annually arriving upon the east coast of England, often much exhausted by their 
travels. The adult male has the forehead olive-green, the crest being bright yellow 
or orange, banded by a black stripe on either side; while the upper-parts are olive- 
green tinged with yellow, the wings dark brown edged with greenish yellow, and 
the lower-parts greyish olive. The female has the crest pale yellow instead of 
orange, while all her tints are more obscure than those of her partner. 
