80 PASSERES. 



49. REGULTJS CRISTATUS. 



(GOLDCREST.) 



Regulus cristatus, Koch, Syst. baier. Zool. p. 199 (1816). 



The Goldcrest is easily recognized by the yellow {female) or 

 orange [male) mesial line on the crown. The Japanese race differs 

 from its European ally in having the nape and upper back more or 

 less suflFused with slaty brown. 



Figures : Gouldj Birds of Asia, vi. pi. 60 (very bad). 



The Goldcrest is a resident on all the Japanese Islands (Blakiston 

 and Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 238) . There are no examples in the S winhoe 

 collection from Hakodadi, but there are eight in the Pryer collection 

 from Yokohama. It has been recorded from Kiu-siu (Seller, Arch. 

 Miss. Scientifiques, 3rd series, xv. p. 277), where the examples 

 obtained by the Siebold Expedition were probably procured (Tem- 

 minck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, p. 70). On Fuji-yama 

 it breeds at an elevation of 7000 feet (Jouy, Proc. United States Nat. 

 Mus. 1883, p. 284). 



The breeding-range of the Goldcrest extends from the British 

 Islands across Europe and Southern Siberia to the Himalayas, 

 China, and Japan. Asiatic examples are greyer on the nape and 

 on the upper back than European ones, and may fairly be re- 

 garded as subspecihcally distinct. The species has been split into 

 three ; but the supposed three forms appear to be merely three 

 points in a series which completely intergrade. The typical form 

 was described by Linneus from Europe. In 1856 the Japanese race 

 was separated under the name of Regulus japonicus (Bonaparte, 

 Compt. Rend, xliii. p. 767), and in 1863 the Himalayan race was 

 separated under the name of Regulus Mmalayensis (Jerdon, Birds of 

 India, ii. p. 206) ; but it is impossible to recognize three races. 

 Examples from Asia Minor, Samarcand, the Himalayas, and Japan 

 are scarcely distinguishable. The alleged difference in size and in 

 the colour of the crown is a myth. Examples from St. Petersburg 

 agree precisely with others from Western Europe. Possibly the 

 wisest course is to coin a new trinomial for the eastern race of the 

 Goldcrest, and call it Regulus cristatus orientalis. 



