GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. 



127 



the claws rather paler, large, almost semicircular, and extremely 

 sharp pointed ; the hind claw the largest. The figure in the 

 plate represents a male of the usual size in its exact propor- 

 tions, and but for the satisfaction of foreigners, might have 

 rendered the whole of this prolix description unnecessary. 



GOLDEN-CRESTED WEEN. {Sylvia regulus.) 



PLATE VIII.— Fig. 2. 



Motacilla regulus, Linn. Syst. i. 338, 48. — Lath. Syn. iv. 508, 145. — Edw. 254. — 

 Peak's Museum, No. 7246. 



REGULUS BEGULOLDES.*-j£Rvwv. 



Eegulus cristatus, Bonap. Synop. p. 91.— Female Golden-crowned Gold-crest, 

 Cont. ofJSf. A. Orn. i. pi. 2, p. 22.— Sylvia reguloides, Sw. MSS. 



This diminutive species is a frequent associate of the one last 

 described, and seems to be almost a citizen of the world at 

 large, having been found not only in North and South America, 



* The gold-crests, the common wrens, with an immense and varied 

 host of species, were associated together in the genus Sylvia, until orni- 

 thologists began to look, not to the external characters in a limited view 

 only, but in connection with the habits and affinities which invariably 

 connect species together. Then many divisions were formed, and among 

 these subordinate groups, Regulus of Ray was proposed for this small 

 but beautiful tribe. It was used by Stephens, the continuator of Shaw's 

 "Zoology," and by Bonaparte in his " Synopsis of North American Birds," 

 and the first volume of his elegant continuation of Wilson. Mr Swainson 

 makes this genus the typical form of the whole Sylvianm, but designates 

 it on that account under the title Sylvia. I have retained the old name 

 of Regulus, on account of its former use by Bay, also from its having been 

 adopted to this form by Stephens and Bonaparte, and lastly, as liable to 

 create less confusion than the bringing forward of an old name (though 

 denoting the typical affinity of the typical group) which has been applied 

 to so many different forms in the same family. 



Wilson was in error regarding the species here figured and the com- 

 mon gold-crest of Europe being identical, and Bonaparte has fallen into 

 the same mistake when figuring the female. Regulus cristatus is exclu- 

 sively European. Regulus reguloides appears yet exclusively North 

 American. Upon comparing the two species minutely together, I find 

 the following variations : — Length of R. reguloides three inches seven- 



