THE GOLD CRESTS. 155 



back , median and greater coverts dusky, externally edged 

 with green and tipped with yellow or yellowish-white, forming a 

 double wing-bar ; quills blackish, edged with yellow, turning 

 to white near the base of the primaries; the base of the 

 secondaries yellow, followed by a band of black, forming a 

 conspicuous pattern ; the inner secondaries tipped with white ; 

 tail-feathers ashy-brown with greenish-yellow margins ; on the 

 crown a beautiful patch of brilliant orange, flanked on both 

 sides by a band of black feathers, streaked with yellow ; fore- 

 part of coronal patch also bright yellow ; forehead dingy olive ; 

 lores ashy-white ; eyebrow and sides of face dingy olive ; cheeks 

 and throat isabelline-buff, the chin whitish; breast and centre 

 of body ashy-white, tinged with yellow, the flanks and sides of 

 body greenish-olive ; under wing- and tail-coverts white with 

 yellowish tips ; quilts ashy below, edged with whitish ; bill 

 nearly black; feet brown ; iris hazel. Total length, 37 inches ; 

 culmen, 0*4; wing, 2*15; tail, 1*5; tarsus, 0*65. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male, but rather duller and 

 greener in colour, and at once distinguished by the colour of 

 the crest, which is bright yellow, instead of orange, with a very 

 broad streak of black on either side of the crest. 



Young. Coloured like the adults, but are much duller, and 

 entirely lack the bright crown, this part of the head being dull 

 green like the rest of the upper-parts ; under surface of body 

 ashy-white. 



Eange in Great Britain. Almost universal throughout the three 

 kingdoms, and breeding wherever it is found, except in the 

 Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys, and Shetland Isles. The 

 numbers of our indigenous birds are vastly increased by the 

 arrival on our eastern coasts of numbers of Gold-Crests from 

 the Continent. Mr. Howard Saunders has thus summarised 

 some of the facts of the migration of this species : " In autumn 

 immense flocks sometimes arrive on our east coast, extend- 

 ing quite across England, and the Irish Channel, and into 

 Ireland. In 1882 the migration-wave of this description com- 

 mencing on August the 6th, and lasting for ninety-two days, 

 reached from the Channel to the Faroes ; in 1883 the migration 

 lasted eighty-two days; and again, in 1884, for a period of 

 eighty-seven days. Sinnliai ' waves' passed over Heligoland, 



