590 Biography of the Gold-crested Kinglet. 



style, exactitude, interest, eloquence, and vividness of descrip- 

 tion as the great luminary of day, in the effulgence of his me- 

 ridian glory, eclipses the pallid moon and twinkling stars. 

 Two species inhabit Europe, the gold-crested kinglet (R. 

 auricapillus) and the fire-crested kinglet (jR. ignicapillus). In 

 the first edition of Temminck's Manuel d 9 Ornithologie (1815), 

 the firecrest and the goldcrest were described as one species ; 

 but in the second (1820) this error was corrected. For 

 an interesting account of the discovery of the firecrest as a 

 British bird, I refer my readers to Mudie's Feathered Tribes. 



Edwards, in his Natural History of Rare Birds (v. pi. 254.), 

 figures a bird which he intends for the goldcrest ; but, as he 

 says it came from America, I am inclined to think it the 

 tricoloured kinglet, which Wilson and others confound with 

 the goldcrest. Bewick's figure of the goldcrest is a decided 

 failure : an excellent representation may be found in Selby's 

 Illustrations of British Ornithology, i. pi. 47. fig. 4. 



The name kinglet is, of course, given in allusion to the 

 " kingly crown " which distinguishes all the genus. The 

 Latin name regulus has the same meaning; rex, a king; 

 regulus, a little king: the Greek, turannos ; the French, 

 roitelet; the Italian, reattino ; the Spanish, reyezuelo ; the 

 German, konigchen ; the Swedish, kongsvogel ; and the Por- 

 tuguese, averei ; have all the same meaning ; that is to say, all 

 have reference to the same ornament. 



I shall now give the synonymes, references, and charac- 

 teristics of the species : — 



jRegulus cristatus Will., Orn., p. 227. ; Montagu's Orn. 

 Diet., ed. Rennie, p. 202. Parus sylvaticus Aldr., Ornitho- 

 logia, ii. 724. Motacilla .Regulus Lin., Syst., i. 338. .Re- 

 gulus vulgaris Steph., Shaw's Gen. Zool., x. 758. .Regulus 

 auricapillus Selby, Brit. Orn., i. 229.; Mudie's Feath. Tribes, 

 i. 302. Sylvia jRegulus Lath., Ind. Orn., ii. 548. ; Tem- 

 minck's Man. d'Orn., i. 229. Roitelet, Buff., v; 363. 

 Roitelet couronne-d'or, Edwards's Rare Birds, v. pi. 254. 

 Roitelet ordinaire, Temminck's Man. d'Orn. Gegronter 

 sanger, Meyer's Tassch. Deut., i. 250. Goldhahnchen, 

 Bechstein's Cage Birds. Regolo, Storia degli Uccelli, iv. 

 pi. 390. Gold-crested wren, Will. Orn.; Lewis's Brit. 

 Birds, ii. pi. 116.; Montagu's Orn. Diet.; Low's Fau. Or- 

 ead.; Arctic Zool., iii. 109.; Mudie's Feathered Tribes; 

 Syme's Song Birds, p. 152. Wood titmouse, Gesner's 

 Hist. An. Gold-crested warbler, Pennant's Brit. Zool., i. 

 514. Common goldcrest, Stephens's Shaw's Zool. ; Rennie's 

 Field Nat. Mag. Gold-crested regulus, Selby 's Brit. Orn., 

 i. 229. pi. 47. 



