698 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Genus REGULUS Cuvier. 



Regulus Cuvier, Le?. d'Anat. Comp., i, 1799-1800, tab. ii. (Type, Motacilla regulus 



Linnfeus. ) 

 OoHhylio" Cabanis, Journ. fiir Orn., i, Jan., 1853, 83. {Type, Motacilla calendula 



Linnaeus.) 



Very small Sylviidse (wing less than 60 mm.) with slender, booted 

 tarsi, tail much shorter than wing, emarginate, the adult males with a 

 patch of bright yellow, orange or scarlet on crown. 



Bill small and slender, the exposed culmen much shorter than mid- 

 dle toe without claw, depressed at base, where its width considerably 

 exceeds its depth; culmen straight to near tip, where obviously 

 decurved, the maxillary tomium distinctly notched subterminally. 

 Nostril longitudinal, overhung hj a distinct operculum, partly covered 

 by antrorse latero-frontal plumules of which one (in most species) is 

 strongly developed, reaching considerably beyond- nostrils. Kictal 

 bristles well developed. Wing rather long, but rounded at tip; 

 seventh and, sixth primaries longest, the eighth and fifth but little 

 shorter and nearly equal, the ninth shorter than fourth (sometimes 

 not longer than third), the tenth about one-third to much more than 

 one-third (but less than one-half) as long as ninth; wing-tip about 

 equal to middle toe with claw, or shorter. Tail about three-fourths 

 as long as wing or a little more, distinctly emarginate, the rectrices 

 becoming somewhat broader terminally, with pointed tip. Tarsus 

 long and slender, about one-third as long as wing, much longer than 

 middle toe with claw, the acrotarsium booted; lateral toes about equal 

 (or the outer very slightly longer than the inner), their claws not 

 reaching to base of middle claw; hallux about as long as lateral toes 

 but much stouter, its claw decidedly shorter than the digit; basal 

 phalanx of middle toe adherent to outer toe for most of its length, to 

 inner toe for about half its length. 



Coloration. — Plain olive, olive-grayish or olive-greenish above, the 

 wings dusky with pale edgings and two whitish bands; crown with a 

 concealed patch of orange or scarlet in adult males, this in most 

 species margined with yellow and inclosed between two stripes of 

 black (usually united on forehead); adult females also with black and 

 yellow on crown (except in S. calendula). Young "similar to adults 

 but without black, yellow, orange or red on crown. 



Nidijication. — Nest very bulky, usually more or less pensile, 

 attached to small twigs in spruce or other coniferous trees, composed 

 of "delicate plant fibers, mosses, and various soft materials. Eggs 

 5 to 10, whitish or buffy, minutely freckled with brown (sometimes 

 apparently immaculate). 



o "Von Kop^vXo'i, 6, nom. prop.=iJe^itts. " 



