159 

 7M& FIRE-CROWNED GOLD-CREST. 



Regulus ignicapillus. 

 PLATE VIII. 



THIS is the second and very rare species of 

 British Gold-crest. We can give nothing of its 

 history in addition to what Mr Yarrell has pub- 

 lished in his excellent " British Birds," having had 

 no opportunity of examining its habits. It is to the 

 Rev. Leonard Jenyns that we are indebted for the 

 first notice of this species as a British bird,* who 

 obtained a specimen in his own garden at Swaffain 

 Bulteeck, near Cambridge. Instances have since 

 occurred of its capture at Brighton, near Durham, 

 and on the coast of Norfolk. Their continental 

 range does not seem exactly ascertained. Tem- 

 minck mentions it as common in the Belgian 

 provinces, and Brehm as breeding in Northern 

 Germany. Mr Hoy, in some interesting notes 

 communicated to Mr Yarrell, considers that they 

 are migratory on the Continent during the winter, 

 and that it prefers low brushwood and young 

 plantations of fir to the loftier trees. He has not 

 heard their song ; but their common call-note 

 differs, and is at once distinguishable from that 

 vof the common species. 



In our plate we have endeavoured to group 

 * British Vertebrata, p. 113. 



