FIRE-CRESTED REGULUS. 359 
common in the Belgian provinces ; but in the parts which I 
have visited, I have found it only as a migratory species 
durmg the autumn; it probably passes over the same dis- 
tricts in the spring, but I have not observed it. As M. 
Brehm, the German naturalist, seems to have been one of 
the first who noticed this bird, I have little doubt of its 
breeding in northern Germany. I fully expected to have 
found it im some very extensive tracts of forest which I 
visited last summer, situated between the Meuse and the 
Rhine ; but I could neither meet with this species, nor our 
common Gold Crest. I have noticed the appearance of the 
Fire Crest in the beginning of September, at first only 
single birds or in pairs; the end of September, and the first 
fortnight im October, seem to be the time when they pass 
over in the greatest numbers. I never recollect having seen 
more than five or six individuals together, whereas with the 
common species you often find them in parties of a dozen or 
more. By the early part of November you will rarely find 
the Fire Crest, while the common species is abundant 
through the winter. I have never heard the song of the 
Fire Crest, but have no doubt of its differing from the 
other; the call-note I can readily distinguish among a host 
of the common ; it is shorter, not so shrill, and pitched in 
a different key, that to one well versed in the language 
of birds it is easily discovered. JI think they prefer low 
brushwood and young plantations of fir to the loftier trees ; 
but yet I have often found them in the latter situations. 
They associate with the Titmice like the other kind; but 
I have found them sometimes more restless and shy. I 
have no doubt but the Fire Crest would be found early in 
autumn if diligently sought for on our south-eastern coast 
by those well conversant with its notes, without which 
knowledge it would be difficult to find it; when within a 
VOL. I. AEA 
