AMERICAN GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. 477 



spot on their head is less conspicuous than towards spring, when they raise 

 their crest feathers while courting. 



The young shot in Newfoundland in August, had this part of the 

 head of a uniform tint with the upper parts of the body. While with us 

 they are amazingly fat, but at Newfoundland we found them the reverse. 

 I have represented a pair of them on a plant that grows in Georgia, and 

 which I thought might prove agreeable to your eye. 



Regulus cristatus, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 91. 

 GoLDEN-caowNED GoLD-CREST, Regulus CRISTATUS, Cli. Bonaparte, 'Amer. 



Ornith. vol. i. p. 22. pi. 2. fig. 4. Female. 

 Regulus reguloides, Jardine in his Edition of WUson's Amer. Ornith. vol. i. 



p. 127. 

 American Fiery-crowned Wren, Regulus tricolor, Nuttall, Manual, part L 



p. 420. 



Adult Male. Plate CLXXXIII. Fig. 1. 



Bill short, straight, subulate, very slender, depressed at the base, 

 compressed towards the end. Upper mandible with the dorsal outline 

 nearly straight, the sides convex, the edges inflected towards the end, the 

 tip slightly declinate, with an obscure notch on each side ; lower mandi- 

 ble straight, acute. Nostrils basal, elliptical, half-closed above by a mem- 

 brane, covered over by a single adpressed feather with disunited barbs. 

 Head rather large, neck short, body small. Legs rather long; tarsus 

 slender, much compressed, covered anteriorly with a long undivided plate 

 above, and a few scutella beneath ; toes slender, the lateral ones nearly 

 equal and free, the hind toe proportionally large ; claws arched, com- 

 pressed, acute. 



Plumage very loose and tufty. Bristles at the base of the bill. 

 Wings of ordinary length ; the first primary extremely short and narrow, 

 the third, fourth, and fifth almost equal, but the fourth longest. Tail of 

 ordinary length, slender, emarginate, of twelve narrow, acuminate fea- 

 thers, the outer curved outwards towards the end. 



Bill black. Iris brown. Feet brownish-yellow, the under part of 

 the toes yellow. The general colour of the upper parts is ash-grey on 

 the neck and sides of the head, tinged with olive on the back, and chang- 

 ing to yellowish-olive on the rump. There is a band of greyish-white 

 across the lower part of the forehead, which at the eye separates into two 



