THE FIRE-CRESTED WREN. 89 



Family TURDID^. Subfamily S YL VIIN&. 



THE FIRE-CRESTED WREN. 



Regu/us ignicapillus, C. L. BREHM. 



A NOT infrequent straggler to the British Isles, the Fire-crest may fully claim 

 its title to a place in these pages. Of its geographical distribution Howard 

 Saunders writes : " The Fire-crested Wren has a much less extended range north- 

 ward than its congener, and although it appears to have straggled to the Faeroes, 

 it is unknown in Scandinavia ; barely reaches Denmark ; and does not occur to the 

 north-east of the Baltic Provinces of Germany. To some parts of the Rhine 

 district it is rather partial in summer ; and, although local in its distribution, it 

 breeds in France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Central and Southern Germany, Greece, 

 Turkey, and Southern Russia. In the Taurus Range of Asia Minor, it is more 

 abundant than the Gold-crest. In the mountain- forests of Algeria, and in some 

 parts of Southern Europe, the Fire-crest is resident throughout the year ; its 

 numbers being augmented in winter by migrants from the north." 



Herr Gatke says : " This species is a little smaller, and by reason of its 

 black eye-streak, still somewhat more prettily marked bird than the preceding. It 

 visits Heligoland almost as regxilarly as the latter, but invariably in very small 

 numbers. In the spring it arrives somewhat sooner, and in the autumn somewhat 

 later than R. flavicapillus'a.\\&. thus may be said in a sense to open and close the 

 migration of the crested Wrens." 



In England specimens of the Fire-crest have been obtained since 1832, when 

 a cat slaughtered the first recognised specimen ; the following counties having at 

 various times witnessed its destruction : Cumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Lanca- 

 shire, N. Wales, Norfolk, Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Devonshire, 

 Oxon, Cornwall, and the Scilly Islands. One specimen is said to have occurred in 

 Scotland in 1848, and one was supposed to have been seen at Tralee in Ireland ; 

 but both of these occurrences are considered to be open to doubt. 



In general appearance the Fire-crest greatly resembles the Gold-crest, but 

 differs in its yellowish frontal band, whiter superciliary streak, frequently more 

 orange crown, a second black streak passing from the gape through the eye, and 



