FIRE-CRESTED REGULUS. 328 



Although this species is not anywhere so numerous as the 

 little Gold Crest, the general resemblance in the two birds 

 has probably caused the rarer one to be occasionally over- 

 looked. M. Temminck says it is common in large forests 

 in Germany; and M. Brehm, a naturalist of that country, 

 says that it comes there in March and April, and leaves 

 again in September and October. Of the habits of this spe- 

 cies in France, M. Vieillot says that its voice is stronger 

 than that of the Gold Crest, and that pairs of them only are 

 usually seen together ; but that the time of their passage in 

 France, as compared with that of the Gold Crest, is later in 

 the spring, and earlier in the autumn. A nest of this bird, 

 found by M. Vieillot near Rouen, was suspended under a 

 branch of a tree, like that of its generic companion, and con- 

 tained five eggs. According to other authors, this bird some- 

 times lays as many as ten eggs, of a pale flesh colour, marked 

 with small red spots at the larger end. The food is said to 

 be similar to that of the preceding species. It is occasion- 

 ally seen in France during winter. 



I am indebted to Mr. J. D. Hoy for the following notes 

 of the habits of this species, as observed by himself on the 

 Continent, and I insert them with the greater pleasure, be- 

 cause they will assist observers in further identifying the spe- 

 cies in this country. 



" M. Temminck describes the Regulus ignicapillus as 

 common in the Belgian provinces ; but in the parts which I 

 have visited, I have found it only as a migratory species 

 during the autumn ; it probably passes over the same dis- 

 tricts in the spring, but I have not observed it. As M. 

 Brehm, the German naturalist, seems to have been one of 

 the first who noticed this bird, I have little doubt of its 

 breeding in northern Germany. I fully expected to have 

 found it in some very extensive tracts of forest which I 

 visited last summer, situated between the Meuse and the 



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