Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/513

Rh spot on their head is less conspicuous than towards spring, when they raise their crest feathers while courting.

The young shot in Newfoundland in August, had this part of the head of a uniform tint with the upper parts of the body. While with us they are amazingly fat, but at Newfoundland we found them the reverse. I have represented a pair of them on a plant that grows in Georgia, and which I thought might prove agreeable to your eye.

Regulus cristatus, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 91.

GoLDEN-caowNED GoLD-CREST, Regulus CRISTATUS, Cli. Bonaparte, 'Amer. Ornith. vol. i. p. 22. pi. 2. fig. 4. Female.

Regulus reguloides, Jardine in his Edition of WUson's Amer. Ornith. vol. i. p. 127.

American Fiery-crowned Wren, Regulus tricolor, Nuttall, Manual, part L p. 420.

Adult Male. Plate CLXXXIII. Fig. 1.

Bill short, straight, subulate, very slender, depressed at the base, compressed towards the end. Upper mandible with the dorsal outline nearly straight, the sides convex, the edges inflected towards the end, the tip slightly declinate, with an obscure notch on each side ; lower mandi- ble straight, acute. Nostrils basal, elliptical, half-closed above by a mem- brane, covered over by a single adpressed feather with disunited barbs. Head rather large, neck short, body small. Legs rather long; tarsus slender, much compressed, covered anteriorly with a long undivided plate above, and a few scutella beneath ; toes slender, the lateral ones nearly equal and free, the hind toe proportionally large ; claws arched, com- pressed, acute.

Plumage very loose and tufty. Bristles at the base of the bill. Wings of ordinary length ; the first primary extremely short and narrow, the third, fourth, and fifth almost equal, but the fourth longest. Tail of ordinary length, slender, emarginate, of twelve narrow, acuminate fea- thers, the outer curved outwards towards the end.

Bill black. Iris brown. Feet brownish-yellow, the under part of the toes yellow. The general colour of the upper parts is ash-grey on the neck and sides of the head, tinged with olive on the back, and changing to yellowish-olive on the rump. There is a band of greyish-white across the lower part of the forehead, which at the eye separates into two