320 SYLVIAD.K. 



and south of the cast, tliousands of these birds were seen to 

 arrive upon tlie sea-shore and sand-banks of the Northum- 

 brian coast ; many of them so fatigued by the length of 

 tlieir flight, or perhaps by the unfavourable shift of wind, as 

 to be unable to rise again from the ground, and great num- 

 bers were in consequence caught or destroyed. This flight 

 must have been immense in quantity, as its extent was traced 

 through the whole length of the coasts of Northumberland 

 and Durham. There appears little doubt of this having 

 been a migration from the more northern provinces of Eu- 

 rope, probably furnished by the pine forests of Norway, 

 Sweden, &:c. from the circumstance of its arrival being simul- 

 taneous with that of large flights of the Woodcock, Fieldfare, 

 and Redwing. Although I had never before witnessed the 

 actual arrival of the Gold-crested Rcgulus, I had long felt 

 convinced, from the great and sudden increase of the species 

 during the autumnal and hyemal months, that our indigenous 

 birds must be augmented by a body of strangers making 

 these shores their winter''s resort." 



Mr. JSIacgillivray mentions this species as inhabiting Scot- 

 land, and the Rev. Mr. Low and Mr. Dunn include it in their 

 accounts of the Birds of Shetland and Orkney ; it inhabits 

 also Denmark, Norway, Sweden, part of Russia and Siberia ; 

 but many of them, as indicated by the autumnal flights re- 

 ferred to, leave the more northern parts of these countries for 

 the winter, and spread themselves over the temperate portions 

 to the southward, even to the shores of the Mediterranean. 

 The Zoological Society have received specimens from Tre- 

 bizond ; Edwards considered it an inhabitant of various parts 

 of Asia; and M. Temminck includes it in his Catalogue of 

 the Birds of Japan. 



The beak of the male is black ; the irides hazel ; the fore- 

 head greyish white ; the base of the crest on each side is 

 bounded by a narrow black line ; the crest-feathers bright 

 yellow, tipped with orange ; sides of the head, nape, back. 



