plants, and sustain themselves on the same kind of food. Their rallying-call is also similar. During very 
cold days they arc in the habit of puffing out their feathers so as to appear twice the size they really are. 
The two sexes travel together, and are very much attached to each other. Towards the end of March this 
bird departs in great numbers to the fir-forests of Switzerland and of some parts of Germany for the 
purposes of reproduction. Nevertheless many pairs nest among our mountains, and in the same woods as 
the common species, but they are everywhere much less numerous. They build their nests at the same time, 
and of similar materials, attaching them firmly to the small twigs of the horizontal branches of the pines 
and firs. The female lays from seven to ten eggs, which are from 11 to 12 millimetres in length by from 
8 to 9 millimetres in breadth, of a white or rosy hue, minutely spotted with very pale red, principally over 
the thicker end.” 
I know of no better-defined group of small birds than the members of the genus Regulus, a group which 
has many characters in common with the Tits (Part), while at the same time we must not shut our eyes to 
its seeming alliance by means of the genus Proregulus to the Phyllojmeustce. The true Reguli Inhabit the 
northern and temperate parts of the Old and New World. About three or four of these are inhabitants of 
the former, namely, R. crhtatm, R. ignicapillus, R. Maderemis, and R. Himalmjensis ; while in America, 
according to Dr. Baird’s ‘ List,’ we find R. calendtda, R. satrapa, and R. Cmieri. With regard to the last- 
named species, I have never seen a specimen, and I believe there is not one existing in any museum. All 
these birds live on insects of the most minute kinds, such as aphides, midges, gnats, and the tiniest of 
coleoptera. 
^riie male has a narrow hand of buff across the forehead at the base of the hill ; crown and crest rich fiery 
orange, bordered in front and on each side to the occiput with a band of black ; above the eye a conspicuous 
streak of white continuous with the buff band across the forehead; lores and a short line behind the eye 
black, beneath the eye a small streak of dull white, and below this, from the angle of the beak, a narrow 
line of black ; all the upper surface rich olive-yellow, brightest on the sides of the neck ; wing-coverts oliv e, 
tipped with white, forming two bands across ; wing-primaries and secondaries light olive-brown, the 
former tinged with grey at the base, and olive-yellow for the remainder of their length ; the latter black at 
the base, and fringed with olive-yellow on their outer webs ; tail light olive-brown, fringed with olive-yellow; 
all the under surface very pale brownish white ; bill black ; irides hazel ; legs, toes, and claws brown. 
In the female the bands on the cheeks are less conspicuous, the crest is lemon-yellow, and the general 
colouring is paler. 
Mr. Jenyns states that the young may be distinguished from those of the common species by the greater 
breadth and length of the hill ; by the cheeks, forehead, and sides of the neck being cinereous, without any 
appearance of the longitudinal streaks ; by the crest being scarcely developed, and of a pale lemon-yellow ; 
by the upper parts not being so bright, and the centre parts cinereous tinged with yellow. 
The Plate represents two males and a female of the size of life, on a branch of the Larch (Abies lariai) as 
it appears in the month of April. 
