458 BRITISH BIRDS. 



REGULUS IGNICAPILLUS. 

 FIRECREST. 



(PLATE 11.) 



Sylvia ignicapilla, Brehm,fde Temm. Man. cTOrn. i. p. 231 (1820). 



Regulus ignicapillus (Temm.), Meyer, Taschenb. iii. p. 109 (1822); et auctorum 



plurimorum Naumann, Tcmminck, Gray, Bonaparte, Deyhtnd, Gertie, Ncu'ton, 



Dresser, fyc. 



Eegulus pyrocephalus, Brehm, Beitr. Vogelk. ii. p. 130, pi. 1. fig. 1 (1822). 

 Regulus mystaceus, Vieill. Faun. Fran?, p. 231 (1822, partim}. 



It is only within a comparatively recent period that the charming little 

 Firecrest has been known to be an occasional visitor to Great Britain. It 

 was first recorded as a British bird from a specimen killed by a cat in a 

 garden near Cambridge in August 1832 (see Proc. Zool. Soc. 1832, p. 139). 

 Four years afterwards another specimen was caught at sea off the Norfolk 

 coast, and came into the possession of Mr. Hancock. A great many Fire- 

 crests have since been obtained on our shores ; so that it may fairly be con- 

 sidered an accidental visitor on migration to the south and south-western 

 portions of England. In Scotland it has only once occurred : a specimen 

 was shot by Dr. Turnbull in Gladsmuir woods in the summer of 1848. In 

 Ireland Thompson states that one has been observed in a garden at Tralee ; 

 but he does not appear to attach much importance to the evidence. It is 

 a rare straggler to Guernsey ; according to Dr. Saxby has been seen in the 

 Shetlands in winter; and has once occurred on the Faroes. 



The Fire-crested Wren has a very restricted range. Its northern limit 

 appears to be the Baltic Provinces, where, however, it is very rare. To 

 the west it breeds throughout Europe south of the Baltic, and is extremely 

 abundant in Algeria, although it has not been recorded from North-eastern 

 Africa. Eastwards its range does not apparently extend beyond the Crimea 

 and Asia Minor. 



The Firecrests are distinguished from the Goldcrests, to which they are 

 very closely allied, by having the black band on the sides of the crest 

 meeting across the forehead *. There appear to be four good species of 

 Firecrests. The nearest ally to the European species is R. maderensis, 

 which may easily be distinguished by the colour of its nape, which is dark 

 grey instead of olive-green, by the size of the culmen, which measures '5 

 instead of '42 inch, and by the fact that the black of the lores does not 



* Dresser hi his ' Birds of Europe ' describes this feature correctly, but by some accident 

 omits it in his figure of the male Firecrest. 



