256 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

and Durham. There appears little doubt of this having
been a migration from the more northerm provinces of Europe
(probably furnished by the pine forests of Norway, Sweden,
&c.), from the circumstance of its arrival being simultaneous
with that of large flights of the woodcock, fieldfare, and
redwing. Although I had never before witnessed the actual
arrival of the gold-crested regulus, I had long felt convinced,
from the great and sudden increase of the species, during
the autumnal and hyemal months that our indigenous birds
must be augmented by a body of strangers making these
shores their winter’s resort.—A more extraordinary circumstance
in the economy of this bird took place during the same
winter, véz., the total disappearance of the whole, natives as
well as strangers, throughout Scotland and the north of
England. This happened towards the conclusion of the
month of January 1823, and a few days previous to the long-
continued snow-storm so severely felt throughout the northern
counties of England, and along the eastern parts of Scotland.
The range and point of this migration are unascertained, but
it must probably have been a distant one, from the fact of
not a single pair having returned to breed, or pass the
succeeding summer, in the situations they had been known
always to frequent. Nor was one of the species to be seen
till the following October, or about the usual time, as I have
above stated, for our receiving an annual accession of strang-
ers to our own indigenous birds.”

The The Willow Wren is a summer visitor to the
Willow British Isles. He arrives about the end of March
Wren. ‘and Jeaves in the month of September. He is

an active little bird, an expert fly-catcher and an agreeable
singer. His coat is of a greenish yellow-brown, his waistcoat
is white tinged with yellow.

The The Common Wren is indigenous to Great
Sommon Britain. It builds its nest under the shelter of
Wren. thatched eaves, in out-of-the-way and unusual