374 SYLVIAD^E. 



is also plentiful ; and on the eastern coast, at the end of 

 autumn, this species occasionally arrives in flocks. Mr. 

 Williamson of Scarborough, has observed this on the coast 

 of Yorkshire ; and Mr. Selby has recorded that, " on the 

 24th and 25th of October, 1822, after a very severe gale, 

 with thick fog from the north-east, but veering towards its 

 conclusion to the east and south of the east, thousands of 

 these birds were seen to arrive upon the sea-shore and sand- 

 banks of the Northumbrian coast ; many of them so 

 fatigued by the length of their flight, or perhaps by the 

 unfavourable shift of wind, as to be unable to rise again 

 from the ground, and great numbers were in consequence 

 caught or destroyed. This flight must have been immense 

 in quantity, as its extent was traced along the whole line 

 of the coasts of Northumberland and Durham. There 

 appears little doubt of this having been a migration from 

 the more northern provinces of Europe, probably furnished 

 by the pine forests of Norway, Sweden, &c., from the cir- 

 cumstance of its arrival being simultaneous with that of 

 large flights of the Woodcock, Fieldfare, and Redwing. 

 Although I had never before witnessed the actual arrival 

 of the Gold-crested Regulus, 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. Macgillivray mentions this species as inhabiting 

 Scotland, 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 referred to, leave the northern parts of 

 these countries for the winter, and spread themselves over 

 the more temperate portions to the southward, even to the 



