Food. 
General 
descrip- 
tion. 
194 PASSERES. REGULUS. _— Recutwus. 
body of strangers, making these shores their winter’s re- 
sort. 
A more extraordinary circumstance in the economy of this 
bird took place during the same winter *, viz. the total disap- 
pearance of the whole tribe, natives as well as strangers, 
throughout Scotland and the north of England. This hap- 
pened towards the conclusion of the month of January 1823, 
and a few days previous to the long-continued snow-storm se 
severely felt through the northern counties of England, and 
along the eastern parts of Scotland. The range and pomt of 
this migration are unascertained, but it must probably have 
been a distant one, from the fact of not a single pair having 
returned to breed, or pass the succeeding summer, in the si- 
tuations they had been known always to frequent. Nor was 
one of the species to be seen till the following October, or 
about the usual time, as I have above stated, for our recei- 
ving an annual accession of strangers to our own indigenous 
birds. 
In habits the regulus approaches to the genus Parus, as 
well as to some of the smaller species of Sylvia. It frequent- 
ly associates with the Parus caudatus, ater, and cwruleus, is 
similar to them in its gestures, and is equally active and un- 
intermitting in search of its food, which consists principally 
of different species of cudlices and tipule, with aphides and 
their larvee. 
It is found throughout Europe, and as far to the north- 
ward as the Arctic Circle. 
Prats 47. Fig. 4. The male bird, natural size. 
Bill black, Feathers of the crown of the head elongated 
and silky, of a rich orange, fading on the sides into 
gamboge-yellow. On each side of this crest is a list of 
black. Cheeks, under part of the neck, and upper 
parts of the body, fine wax-yellow. Quills brownish- 
black, margined with wine-yellow. Greater coverts tip- 
ee —— 
* See vol. v. p. 397. of Memoirs of Wernerian Society. 
