FIRECREST. 461 



have been obtained on our shores (usually at the migration period) have in 

 many instances been in company with parties of those birds. 



The Firecrest has the general colour of the upper parts olive-green, 

 brighter on the sides of the neck below the nape ; the forehead at the base 

 of the bill is huffish white, above which is a black line extending along 

 each side of the crest, which is rich orange-yellow in the centre and- lemon- 

 yellow on the sides ; from the gape, extending through the eye, is another 

 du>ky black streak ; and another and less distinct moustachial streak passes 

 from the base of the bill downwards ; the wings and tail are dark brown, 

 margined with yellowish green ; and the greater and median wing-coverts 

 are tipped with white, forming two white bars across the wings ; the primary- 

 coverts are dark brown ; the ear-coverts are slate-grey. The general 

 colour of the underparts is dull buffish white. Bill very dark brown ; 

 legs, feet, and claws dark brown ; irides hazel. The female only differs 

 from the male in having the crest much paler and the colours generally 

 less brilliant. Young birds do not show any trace of the yellow crest until 

 after the first moult, and have the crown uniform in colour with the rest of 

 the upper parts; but the black stripes on the head are similar to those of 

 the adult birds, though sometimes less distinct *. 



The Ruby-crowned AVreu, Regulus calendula, of Xorth America has been 

 included in the British fauna by several writers ; but the evidence is very 

 unsatisfactory. The specimen upon which its claim to be a " British " 

 bird rests is said to have been shot in the summer of 1852 by Dr. Dewar 

 in Kenmore wood, near Loch Lomond. It was not until six years after- 

 wards that the bird was identified by Dr. Dewar and exhibited by Mr. Gray at 

 a meeting of the Natural-History Society of Glasgow and it is therefore 

 extremely probable that during such a lapse of time an American skin 

 had unwittingly found its way into the drawer in which Dr. Dewar placed 

 the Goldcrests which he shot on the day of its reputed capture. The 

 bird differs so strikingly from its allies, the Goldcrest and the Firecrest, 

 that it is impossible to conceive how it could have been overlooked for the 

 space of six years ! The bird has been known to visit Greenland (see 

 ' Ibis/ 1861, p. 5), thus making its accidental occurrence in Scotland more 

 probable ; but until more conclusive evidence is obtained it is extremely 

 unadvisable to admit it into our fauna. It may easily be distinguished from 

 the Goldcrest and the Firecrest by its ruby-coloured crest, by the absence 

 of both the white and the black eye-stripes, and by having the nostrils 

 covered with feathers instead of a single feather. The bird killed in 

 Durham, and which has been referred to the American Regulus calendula 



by Bree, Gray, and others, is nothing but the Firecrest (R. ignicapillus] . 

 fc 



* Dresser (or his careless translator) states that Xaumann describes the young bird just 



fledged as lacking the black markings on the crown. Xaumann does nothing of the sort, 

 but especially states that the young of the Firecrest may be easily distinguished from the 

 young of the Goldcrest by their possessing the whitish and blackish eye-stripes. 



