FIRECREST. 459 



extend behind tLe eye. This species appears to be confined to Madeira. 

 The next nearest ally to the Common Firecrest is apparently confined to 

 the Canary Islands. It has the olive-green nape o£ R. ignicapillus and the 

 large bill of jR. maderensis ; but may be distinguished from either of them 

 by having the lores greyish white as in R. cristatus. As these difl'erences 

 have apparently escaped the notice of naturalists^ I propose to call the bird 

 Regulus teneriffa. The fourth species, R. satrapa, is confined to the 

 Nearctic Region. It has the greyish- white lores of R. teneriffm, but may 

 easily be distinguished from that species by its very small bill, which only 

 measures •d<inch. The eastern form of this bird has the upper back greyish 

 brown instead of olive-green ; but the western form approaches the Palfe- 

 arctic species in colour. 



The haunts of the Firecrest are very similar to those of the Goldcrest ; 

 and the habits of the two birds bear great resemblance. The Firecrest is 

 a very common bird in the pine-woods near Arcachon ; and wherever you 

 come across a party of Crested Tits or Coal Tits they are generally accom- 

 panied by either the Goldcrest or the Firecrest, whether you happen to be 

 in the pine forests or in the gardens of the villas where Scotch firs are the 

 prevailing trees. Their presence is at once betrayed by their soft notes, a 

 monotonous zH-zit, which is continually uttered as they are busily employed 

 feeding on insects under the leaves of the overhanging trees, and becomes 

 a rapid z-z-z-zit as they chase each other from tree to tree, or fly off in 

 alarm at your movements. If you remain perfectly still they will some- 

 times come and feed close to you, occasionally two or three of them within 

 a few feet of your head. It is very curious then to watch their movements. 

 They twist in and out among the slender twigs, sometimes with head down 

 and sometimes with feet up ; but by far the most curious part of the per- 

 formance is when they come to the end of the twig and examine the under 

 surface of the leaves at its extremity. They have nothing to stand upon; 

 so they flutter more like bees than birds from leaf to leaf, their little wings 

 beating as hard as they can go, indeed beating so fast that they look trans- 

 parent, their bodies all the time being nearly perpendicular. Of course it 

 is only on large-leaved oaks, and the shrubs that form the underwood in 

 the garden, that you can examine them closely. In the pine forest, where 

 all the branches for twenty feet are broken off" for fuel, you require a glass 

 to see them well. The Firecrest seems a much more restless bird than the 

 Goldcrest, and does not apparently examine each tree so patiently. It 

 seems to be more in a hurry, and to prefer the pines to the underwood. 



Dixon, when in Algeria, made the following notes respecting this 

 bird : — -"The Firecrest is a fairly common bird in some parts of the Djebel 

 Aures, both in the evergreen-oak forests above Lambessa and the cedar 

 forests south-west of Batna. These forests clothe the steep mountain- 

 sides, which are here and there split into romantic ravines, on the sides of 



