FIRECREST. 461 
; 
have been obtained on our shores (usually at the migration period) have in 
many instances been in company with parties of those birds. 
The Firecrest has the general colour of the upper parts olive-green, 
brighter on the sides of the neck below the nape ; the forehead at the base 
of the bill is buffish white, above which is a black line extending along 
each side of the crest, which is rich orange-yellow in the centre and lemon- 
yellow on the sides ; from the gape, extending through the eye, is another 
dusky black streak ; and arother and less distinct moustachial streak passes 
from the base of the bill downwards ; the wings and tail are dark brown, 
margined with yellowish green; and the greater and median wing-coverts 
are tipped with white, forming two white bars across the wings; the primary- 
coverts are dark brown; the ear-coverts are slate-grey. The general 
eolour of the underparts is dull buffish white. Bill very dark brown; 
legs, feet, and claws dark brown; irides hazel. The female only differs 
from the male in having the crest much paler and the colours generally 
less briliant. Young birds do not show any trace of the yellow crest until 
after the first moult, and have the crown uniform in colour with the rest of 
the upper parts; but the black stripes on the head are similar to those of 
the adult birds, though sometimes less distinct *. 
The Ruby-crowned Wren, Regulus calendula, of North America has been 
included in the British fauna by several writers ; but the evidence is very 
unsatisfactory. The specimen upon which its claim to be a “ British ” 
bird rests is said to have been shot in the summer of 1852 by Dr. Dewar 
in Kenmore wood, near Loch Lomond. It was not until six years after- 
_ __ wards that the bird was identified by Dr. Dewar and exhibited by Mr. Gray at 
_ a meeting of the Natural-History Society of Glasgow ; and it is therefore 
extremely probable that during such a lapse of time an American skin 
had unwittingly found its way into the drawer in which Dr. Dewar placed 
1 the Golderests which he shot on the day of its reputed capture. The 
bird differs so strikingly from its allies, the Goldcrest and the Firecrest, 
that it is impossible to conceive how it could have been overlooked for the 
space of six years! The bird has been known to visit Greenland (see 
‘This, 1861, p. 5), thus making its accidental occurrence in Scotland more 
probable ; but until more conclusive evidence is obtained it is extremely 
unadvisable to admit it into our fauna. It may easily be distinguished from 
the Goldcrest and the Firecrest by its ruby-coloured crest, by the absence 
of both the white and the black eye-stripes, and by having the nostrils 
covered with feathers instead of a single feather. The bird killed in 
Durham, and which has been referred to the American Regulus calendula 
by Bree, Gray, and others, is nothing but the Firecrest (A. ignicapillus). 
* Dresser (or his careless translator) states that Naumann describes the young bird just 
fledged as lacking the black markings on the crown. Naumann does nothing of the sort, 
but especially states that the young of the Firecrest may be easily distinguished from the 
| young of the Goldcrest by their possessing the whitish and blackish eye-stripes. 
