The friendly 'Goldcrest In a beautiful Warwickshire garden in the
Shakespeare country is a small pleasingly thatched aviary where a number of small Australian birds have their being. They Make a happy noise from 'morning to night, and breed successfully three times or int:4e a year. There is some reason to believe that their presence is pleasing to the native wild birds. One piece of evidence is peculiarly pleasing. The aviary is over- hung by the bough. of a deOdar and underneath the end of the bough is the suspended nest Of a golden-Crested Wren, now full of young On the point of flight. This tiny bird is in some ways peculiarly friendly. I have never known wild birds so little afraid of the neighbourhood of man. In north-western: England, where they often 'abound towards Winter time, you may stand and watch them as you watch humming birds in the Argentine. They flit about the bush and chatter without paying the least attention to the observer. The only other' nest I have seen this year hangs from a fir bough over the much frequented doorway of a surgery in the Middle of a village ; and near by a single bird was found in a greenhouse. The number that nest towards the South of England appears to be' increasing. W. tEAClil DIOMAS.
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