166 FEMALE GOLDEN-CROWNED GOLD-CREST. 



participate equally in the bounties of two continents ; and that another, 

 so closely allied to it as to be generally mistaken for a mere variety, 

 should be limited in its wanderings by the boundaries of but one. 



That the reader may be assured of the specific difference between 

 these two birds, I add a short comparative description. The Megulus 

 cristatus has the bill very feeble, and quite subulate ; whilst that of the 

 ignicapillus is also subulate, but is wider at base. The cheeks of the 

 former are pure cinereous, without any white lines, having only a 

 single blackish one through the eye ; those of the latter, in addition 

 to the black line through the eye, have a pure white one above, and 

 another below, whence Temminck calls it Roitelet triple bandeau. The 

 English name also may be derived from this character, or the bird may 

 rather be called Fire-crowned Gold-crest, from its Latin name. The 

 crest of the male Golden-crowned Gold-crest is yellowish-orange, that 

 of the Fire-crowned is of the most vivid orange ; but, the most obvious 

 difference is between the females, that of the Golden-crowned having a 

 lemon-yellow crest, which, in the female of its congener, is orange, like 

 that of the male, only much less vivid. The cheek bands of the female 

 Fire-crowned are by no means so obvious as in its mate ; thus the fe- 

 male of this species resembles the male Golden-crowned, than which the 

 colors of its crest are not less brilliant. If, to these traits, we add, that 

 the latter is a little larger, we shall complete the enumeration of their 

 differences. 



The two species are also somewhat distinguished by their manner of 

 living. The Golden-crowned Gold-crest associates in small bands, con- 

 sisting of a whole family, whilst the Fire-ciiowned is only observed in 

 pairs. The latter is more shy, and frequents the tops of the highest 

 trees, whereas the former is more generally observed amongst low 

 branches and bushes ; the voice of the Fire-crowned Gold-crest is also 

 stronger. Their nests, however, *are both of the same admirable con- 

 struction, having the entrance on the upper part ; but the eggs are 

 different in color, and those of the Fire-crowned are fewer in number. 



The female Golden-crowned Gold-crest is three inches and three- 

 quarters long, and six in extent. The bill is black ; the feet dusky ; 

 the toes and nails wa.x color ; the irides are dark brown. The frontlet 

 is dull whitish-gray, extending in a line over and beyond the eye ; above 

 this is a wide black line, confluent on the front, enclosing on the 

 crown a wide longitudinal space of lemon-yellow, erectile, slender 

 feathers, with disunited webs ; a dusky line passes through the eye, 

 beneath which is a cinereous line, margined below by a narrow dusky 

 one. The cervix and upper part of the body are dull olive green, tinged 

 with yellowish on the rump. The whole inferior surface is whitish ; the 

 feathers, like those of the superior surface, being blackish-plumbeous at 

 base. The lesser and middling wing coverts are dusky, margined Tith 



