110 
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. 
shot in Kcnmore Wood, Loch Lomondside, in the 
summer of 1852. Living in its vicinity, I went to the 
wood for the purpose of shooting some specimens of 
Goldcrests, which are always there in abundance. After 
procuring upwards of a dozen, I found, on looking 
them over, what I took to be the Firecrest; this I 
safely deposited among my other skins, where it lay 
till last year, when, on examining it carefully, with the 
view of exhibiting it at the Natural History Society 
here, to my surprise my sjiecimen turned out to be, 
not llegulus icjnicapillus, as I had supposed, but Hegulus 
calendula of North America. I forwarded it to Mr. 
Gould for examination, to whom I afterwards presented 
the specimen. Although I look upon the occurrence 
of llegulus calendula in this country as a subject of 
extreme interest, still it has no claim to a place among 
our birds, farther than as one of ‘the many stragglers 
which from time to time find their way to our shores. 
How this little creature, the most diminutive of all the 
American species which have visited Britain, found its 
way across the Atlantic is almost inconceivable. My 
belief is that most of the American species which are 
met with in this country, are aided in their passage 
by vessels crossing the Atlantic, and I think it utterly 
impossible for such a tiny bird as this to find its way 
across without some such assistance. Two or three 
instances have occurred to my own observation, in 
which birds were conveyed in this way.” 
Audubon’s account of this bird is so interesting that 
I will take the liberty of making from it a very long 
extract. His writing is always welcome to the real 
lover of nature. — “The history of this diminutive bird 
is yet in a great measure unknown, and although I 
have met with it in places where it undoubtedly breeds. 
