SYLVIINE. 59 
THE FIRE-CRESTED WREN. 
REGULUS IGNICcAP{LLUS (C. L. Brehm). 
The Fire-crested Wren can only be considered an irregular 
visitor to our shores, and Mr. J. H. Gurney, in an excellent analysis 
of its supposed occurrences (‘Zoologist,’ 1889, p. 172) throws 
justifiable doubt on the correctness of some of the identifications, 
notably the first, near Cambridge in 1832, on the strength of which 
the species was admitted to the British list. However, between the 
months of October and April in various years, many genuine 
examples have been obtained on our southern and eastern coasts, 
chiefly in Cornwall and the Scilly Islands; more than twenty in 
Sussex ; and some in every littoral county up to Yorkshire ; a few in 
Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Shropshire; and one (coll. E. Bidwell) 
near Pwllheli, North Wales, on March 24th, 1878. There are no 
authenticated records for Scotland or Ireland. 
The Fire-crested Wren has a much less extended range northward 
than its congener; it is unknown in Scandinavia; barely reaches 
Denmark, though often visiting Heligoland ; and does not occur to 
the north-east of the Baltic Provinces of Germany. It is rather 
partial to some parts of the Rhine district in summer ; and, although 
local in its distribution, breeds in France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, 
Central and Southern Germany, Greece, Turkey, and Southern 
Russia ; while in the Taurus range of Asia Minor it is more abundant 
than the Golden-crest. In the mountain-forests of Algeria, and in 
some parts of Southern Europe, the Fire-crest is resident throughout 
