164 BUBY-CBOWNED KINGLET. 



Having quite satisfied myself by repeated correspondence, that 

 there could have been no mistake about the matter, I shall be con- 

 tent with introducing here part of Dr. Dewar's letter. There may, 

 I think, be some truth in Dr. Dewar's suggestion, that these small 

 birds get a lift e?t route in the numerous vessels which are constantly 

 passing between the two countries. But after all there is nothing 

 very extraordinary in such a migration. The little creature is in 

 America a migratory hird, and flies, according to Audubon, from 

 Louisiana and other southern states to Newfoundland and Labrador, 

 where it breeds. It leaves the south in March, and has young in the 

 far north in June. Our friend had evidently mistaken its way back 

 again to the south, and come to the Scotch Highlands instead. 



The following is an abstract from Dr. Dewar's letter, dated Glasgow, 

 December 6th., 1859: — "The specimen of Reguliis calendula, regarding 

 which you write, I shot in Kenmore Wood, Loch Lomondside, in the 

 summer of 1852. Living in its vicinity, I went to the wood for the 

 purpose of shooting some specimens of Goldcrests, which are always 

 there in abundance. After procuring upwards of a dozen, I found, on 

 looking them over, what I took to be the Firecrest: this I safely 

 deposited among my other skins, where it lay till last year, when, on 

 examining it carefully, with the view of exhibiting it at the Natural 

 History Society here, to my surprise my specimen turned out to be, 

 not Regulus ignicapillus , as I had supj)osed, but Regulus calendula 

 of North America. I forwarded it to Mr. Gould for examination, 

 to whom I afterwards presented the specimen. Although I look upon 

 the occurrence of Regtdus calendula in this country as a subject of 

 extreme interest, still it has no claim to a place among our birds, 

 farther than as one of the many stragglers which from time to time 

 find their way to our shores. How this little creature, the most 

 diminutive of all the American species which have visited Britain, 

 found its way across the Atlantic, is almost inconceivable. My belief 

 is that most of the American species which are met with in this 

 country, are aided in their passage by vessels crossing the Atlantic, 

 and I think it utterly impossible for such a tiny bird as this to find 

 its way across without some such assistance. Two or three instances 

 have occurred to my own observation, in which birds were conveyed 

 in this way.-" 



The specimen stated in the first edition of this work to have been 

 killed in Durham, and transferred to the collection of the Rev. Canon 

 Tristram, turns out to be a specimen of the Fire-crested Begulus. 

 Dr. Cullen has, however, informed me that a dead specimen was 

 picked up early this year, (1873,) near Kusteudji. 



