GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN 



511 



Were it not for one circumstance, it would be unnecessary to 

 allude to the colouring of the species. It is remarkable, however, 

 that while the grasshopper-warbler presents a striking resemblance to 

 the sedge-bird, the present species 

 shows an equally close likeness 

 to the reed-wren. It looks, in 

 fact, almost as though the two 

 members of the present group 

 had respectively mimicked the 

 two species of Acrocephalus. 

 From a reed-wren, the present 

 species (apart from generic 

 features) ma}' be distinguished 

 by the wider tail-feathers, which 

 are faintly barred at the base ; 

 the general colour of the upper- 

 parts in the male being reddish 

 brown, and that of the under-parts white shading into buff. 



To central and southern Europe the species is a local summer- 

 visitor from northern Africa, where, however, it also breeds. 



HE ROWLAND ' 



SAVI S WAKBLEK. 



Golden-crested Largely on account of the circumstance that each 

 Wren (Reg-ulus nostril is overshadowed by a bristle-like feather, 

 cristatus) ^^^ golden-crested wren (or gold-crest, as it is called 



by those who desire to give to popular names of 

 animals a restricted meaning to which they have no claimj and its 

 relatives are referred by many writers to a distinct family — Regulidae. 

 As additional arguments in favour of this view, are urged : — the 

 diminutive size of these birds, their bright-coloured crowns, their 

 peculiar nests, and the large number of their eggs ; but none of 

 these features, nor the whole collectively, can claim any great value, 

 and it seems best to follow those ornithologists who include these 

 birds with the warblers in the family Sylviida^, of which they perhaps 

 form a separate subfamil}', the Regulina:;. Here it may be mentioned 

 that an explanation is required, not only of the use of the feather 

 covering the nostril in these birds, but also of the purpose of the bright- 

 coloured crown of the head common to these birds, woodpeckers, and 

 the redpoll. 



The small size of the golden-crested wren (the Regii/ies irgulits of 

 many ornithologists), whose total length scarcely exceeds 3^ inches, 

 coupled with the bright lemon-yellow crown, deepening posteriorly 



