SPECIES 4. SYL VIA RE G UL US. 



GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. 



[Plate VIII. Fig. 2.] 



Motacilla regulus, LINN. Syst. i, 338, 48. LATH. 8yn. iv, 508, 

 145. EDW. 254. PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 7246. 



THIS diminutive species is a frequent associate of the one 

 last described, and seems to be almost a citizen of the world at 

 large, having been found not only in North and South Ameri- 

 ca, the West Indies and Europe, but even in Africa and India. 

 The specimen from Europe, in Mr. Peale's collection, appears 

 to be in nothing specifically different from the American; and 

 the very accurate description given of this bird by the Count 

 de Buffon, agrees in every respect with ours. Here, as in Eu- 

 rope, it is a bird of passage, making its first appearance in Penn- 

 sylvania early in April, among the blossoms of the maple, of- 

 ten accompanied by the Ruby-crowned Wren, which, except 

 in the markings of the head, it very much resembles. It is very 

 frequent among evergreens, such as the pine, spruce, cedar, ju- 

 mper ^ &c. and in the Fall is generally found in company with 

 the two species of Titmouse, Brown Creeper, and small Spot- 

 ted Woodpecker. It is an active, unsuspicious, and diligent little 

 creature, climbing and hanging, occasionally, among the 

 branches, and sometimes even on the body of the tree, in search 

 of the larvae of insects, attached to the leaves and stems, and 

 various kinds of small flies, which it frequently seizes on wing. 

 As it retires still farther north to breed, it is seldom seen in 

 Pennsylvania from May to October; but is then numerous in 

 orchards, feeding among the leaves of the apple-trees, which, 

 at that season, are infested with vast numbers of small black 

 winged insects. Its chirp is feeble, not much louder than that 



