80 PASSERES. 



49. REGULUS CRISTATUS. 

 (GOLDCREST.) 



Regulns cn'stafiis, Koch, Syst. baier. Zool. p. 190 (1816). 



The Goldcrcst is easily recognized by the yellow {female) or 

 orange (male) mesial line on the crown. The Japanese race ditters 

 from its European ally in having the nape and upper back more or 

 less suffused with slaty brown. 



Figures: Gould, Birds of Asia, vi. pi. GO (very bad). 



The Goldcrest is a resident on all the Japanese Islands (Blakiston 

 and Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 238) . There are no examples in the Swinhoe 

 collection from Hakodadi, but there are eight in the Pryer collection 

 from Yokoliama. It has been recorded from Kiu-siu (SoUer, Arch. 

 Miss. Scientifiques, 3rd series, xv. p. 277), where the examples 

 obtained by the Sicbold Expedition were probably procured (Tcm- 

 minck and Schlcgel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, p. 70). On Fuji-yama 

 it breeds at an elevation of 7000 feet (Jouy, Proc. United States Nat. 

 Mus. 1883, p. 281). 



The breeding-range of the Goldcrest extends from the British 

 Islands across Europe and Southern Siberia to the Himalayas, 

 China, and Japan. Asiatic examples are greyer on the nape and 

 on the upper back than European ones, and may fairly be re- 

 garded as subspecitieally distinct. The species has been split into 

 three ; but the su])poscd three forms appear to be merely three 

 points in a series which completely intergrade. The typical form 

 Mas described by Linneus from Europe. In 1856 the Japanese race 

 was separated under the name of Hef/ithis japonicus (Bonaparte, 

 Compt. Rend, xliii. p. 707), and in 18G3 the Himalayan race was 

 separated under the name of Regulus hhnalaijensis (Jerdon, Birds of 

 India, ii. p. 200) ; but it is impossible to recognize three races. 

 Examples from Asia Minor, Samarcand, the Himalayas, and Japan 

 are scarcely distinguishable. The alleged did'ercnee in size and in 

 the colour of the crown is a myth. Examj)les from St. Petersburg 

 agree precisely with others from Western Ihirope. Possibly the 

 wisest course is to coin a new trinomial for tlie eastern race of the 

 Goldcrest, and call it lie(/tiliis cristatus orie/i/a/is. 



