134 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



some years since, as noticed bj Messrs. Gurney and 

 Fisher; and the last, a young male, was caught by a 

 dog in a furze bush, on the 25th of February, 1859. 

 This bird was sent to a bird-stuffer in this city, together 

 with a stoat killed at the same time, and was intended 

 to be placed in the mouth of "the varmint," when 

 fortunately it was recognized as a rarity. The above 

 Norfolk specimens are preserved in Mr. Gurney's col- 

 lection at Catton. Mr. Hunt, in his " List" of Nor- 

 folk Birds, has the following note on this species : " A. 

 pair of these elegant little birds were shot in the month 

 of June, 1828 ; they are the only specimens ever found 

 in this part of the kingdom, and are now in the pos- 

 session of Mr. Crickmore, of Beccles." No locality being 

 named in this instance, it is most probable, I think, 

 that these specimens were obtained in the neighbourhood 

 of the town where Mr. Crickmore resided, and would 

 therefore be the first recorded instances of the Dartford 

 warbler appearing in the Eastern Counties; but as 

 Beccles is situated on the borders of the two counties, 

 they are quite as likely to have been killed on the Nor- 

 folk as on the Suffolk side of it. Mr. Dix informs me, 

 that one in his possession was killed in December, 1860, 

 on Nacton heath, near Ipswich, where others are said to 

 have been seen. 



REGULUS CRISTATUS, Koch. 

 GOLDEN-CEESTED WEEN. 



Exquisite alike in form and plumage, the diminutive 

 little gold-crest is resident with us throughout the year, 

 and braves our sharpest winters, and in summer nesting 

 in our gardens and plantations, is probably far more 

 plentiful and more generally distributed than formerly, 



