24 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY* 
account, by Swainson and Richardson, in Vol. II., p. 27, of the Fauna Boreali- 
Americana .* The question respecting the specific identity, or difference, of the 
birds obtained from Iceland and Norway, is well entitled to the attention of 
ornithologists. 
Azure-winged Magpie, Pica cyanea , or, more correctly, cyanoptera. This 
rare and elegant bird, a native of Spain, has not hitherto been described by 
Temminck, or any other European ornithologist with whose works we are 
acquainted, except Wagler, in his Systerna Avium. It strongly resembles its 
lively, impudent, and more common congener, in structure and habits. The 
following is the specific description, as traced by Gould ; whose figure is as 
correctly drawn as splendidly coloured: Beak and legs black. Vertex, occiput, 
and ear-coverts, black, with shining violet reflections. Back and rump ashy 
rose-colour. Throat white. Under' surface same as, but a few shades lighter 
than, the back. Wings and tail delicate azure-blue: primaries, excepting the 
first two, which are black, white on outer web about half the length from tip. 
Tail graduated; each feather tipped with white. Length 12—14 inches. Sexual 
diversity, none. 
Squacco Heron, Ardea comata ( — ralloides , Scopoli, — castanea , Gmelin),— 
Heron crabier, Fr. —Sgarza ciufetto, It. —Rallen Reiher, G. —An adult male, 
figured with extraordinary truth and delicacy. From the long, slender, and 
hair-like plumes which decorate the vertex of this rare visitant of the British 
islands, the specific designation, comata , is rendered peculiarly applicable. Its 
habits resemble those of its congeners. Of its nidification little is at present 
known. 
Plate IV. exhibits three exquisitely-drawn figures, one illustrative of a newly- 
distinguished species, of British Regulus. The first of these is the Fire-crested 
Wren, R. ignicapillus —long known and recognized, in South Europe, as a 
distinct species; but overlooked in Britain, or confounded with its paler-crested 
congener. We have, ourselves, frequently remarked the difference of colour in 
the vertex of these two birds; but were induced to consider it as merely a sexual 
diversity. The honour of the discovery is due to the Rev. L. Jenyns. Our 
little stranger, closely resembling the common species, in size, habits, food, and 
nidification, is principally distinguished by the fiery colour of the crest , a more 
decidedly golden lustre of the sides of the neck and top of the back, and the 
alternate stripes of white and black, which occupy the sides of the face both 
above and below the eye. It is the Roitelet triple-bandeau (Sylvia ignicapilla) 
of Temminck ; Varietat der Goldhahnchens , of the Germans ; but not noticed in 
the last edition of Selby's Illustrations.—-Figure Second: Golden-crested Wren, 
Termed, also, Northern Zoology . 
