Genus REGULUS, Cuww. 
Gen. Cuar. Beak very slender, short, straight, slightly compressed laterally ; the upper 
mandible slightly laciniated towards the tip. Nostri/s covered with two recumbent feathers. 
Wings rounded. Tarsus longer than the middle toe. 
FIRE-CRESTED WREN. 
Regulus ignicapillus, Briss. 
Le Roitelet a triple bandeau. 
Tue beautiful little birds which compose this genus are distinguished at once by their diminutive size, by the 
rich golden crown of their heads, and by the minute comb-like feather which covers their nostrils. Although 
so diminutive, they are a courageous, spirited, hardy, and active family; enduring, even in the cold countries 
of the North, the severities of the hardest winter. Their habits, food, nidification, the number and colour of 
their eggs, bring them in close connexion with the Titmice, while their more feeble but sweetly modulated 
song, and comparatively weak bill indicate their alliance to the Sylviade, from which combination of characters 
it may be a matter of doubt whether its true station is among the former or the latter. On this point we 
leave the reader to form his own conclusions ; although, for ourselves, we are inclined to consider its alliance 
to the Titmice as based upon the most solid grounds. . 
We have, however, to notice a new claimant in one of the present family, to a place in the Fauna of Great 
Britain, which has been long known as a continental species under the name of R. ignicapillus. The authority 
we possess for adding this name to the list of British Birds rests not upon our own observation, but upon the 
testimony of an accurate and attentive observer of nature, the Rev. L. Jenyns, of Swaffham Bulbeck, Cam- 
bridgeshire, who exhibited a recent specimen (accidentally killed near his own residence, ) before the Committee 
of Science and Correspondence of the Zoological Society of London, at the meeting of the 14th of August 
1832. 
If this bird has been hitherto overlooked in England, the omission has arisen from its close similarity to the 
common species ; we have therefore figured both in one Plate, that their differences may be more clearly per- 
ceived. The true habitat of the Fire-crested Wren appears .to be confined to the southern portions of Europe, 
being found in abundance in France, Belgium, and the eastern provinces. In its habits, manners, food, and 
nidification, it strictly resembles the Golden-crested Wren, from which it differs in plumage in the following 
points. Its crest is more fiery ; the sides of the neck and top of the back more tinged with a golden lustre ; 
and in the alternate stripes of black and white, which occupy the sides of the face, both above and below the 
eye; the under surface is also rather more grey ; its size is the same, or as nearly so as possible. 
GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. 
Regulus vulgaris, Cuz. 
Le Roitelet ordinaire. 
Te Golden-crested Wren is the smallest of the European Birds, and is generally dispersed in every region 
from the Arctic circle to the utmost limit of the warm and sultry regions of the South : in the British Isles it is 
to be found throughout every district, inhabiting woods, coppices and hedgerows, but especially plantations of 
Fir and Oak, where they appear to be companions with several of the species of the Tits, particularly Parus 
ceruleus and ater, with which they may be generally observed engaged in scrutinizing the highest and out- 
most branches of trees, clinging with ease and dexterity to the under surface, prying inquisitively into every 
crevice in search of insects and their larvee, which, with tender buds and small seeds, constitute their food. 
We have observed that this species, as well as the Long-tailed Titmouse, which it also sometimes accom- 
panies, is in the habit of traversing with a certain degree of order and regularity considerable extent of dis- 
trict, returning nearly at a given time to the same locality, so as to perform a circuit of several miles in the 
course of a single day. Their common call, which is constantly repeated as if to keep the family together, 
is a weak but shrill cry, so closely resembling that of the Creeper (Certhia familiaris), as scarcely to be dis- 
tinguished from it. The song, however, which is poured out at the season of nidification is plaintive, sweet 
and melodious. It constructs a beautiful little rounded nest of moss and lichens, warmly lined with feathers, 
which is artfully suspended on the under surface of a fir branch, usually near its extremity, and among the 
thickest foliage, laying from seven to ten very small eggs of a yellowish white colour. 
The plumage of the male is of a uniform olive green on the upper surface, the wing-primaries and the 
tail being brown; the secondaries barred with black and white ; the head is ornamented with a beautiful silky 
golden crest, with an outward border of black capable of elevation or depression at pleasure; the space 
between the eye and the base of the beak is white, while in the Fire-crested Wren the same part is black ; 
the whole of the under surface is grey, more or less tinged with olive ; the beak black ; tarsus greenish yellow. 
We have figured a male and female of the Golden-crested Wren, and a male only of the Fire-crested, 
omitting the female of the latter, as there is no distinguishing characteristic. 
