Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/514

478 bands, one extending over, the other under the eye ; above this is a broadish band of black, also margining the head on either side, the inner webs and tips of these black feathers being of a bright pure yellow, of which colour are some of the feathers in the angle formed anteriorly by the dark band ; the crown of the head in the included spaces covered with shorter flame-coloured silky feathers ; an obscure line of dusky feathers from the angle of the mouth, to beneath the eye, which is margined ante- riorly and posteriorly with the same colour ; the throat and lower parts are greyish-white, tinged anteriorly with yellowish-brown. Quills and coverts dusky, the quills margined with greenish-yellow, the secondary coverts broadly tipped with the same, as is the first row of smaller coverts ; the base of all the quills, excepting the four outer, white ; from the seventh primary to the innermost secondary but two, a broad bar of blackish-brown. Tail of the same colour as the quills.

Length 4 inches, extent of wings 7 ; bill along the back /g, along the edge II ; tarsus ^^g.

Adult Female. Plate CLXXXIII. Fig. 2.

The female is somewhat smaller than the male, from which it differs in external appearance, chiefly in having pure yellow substituted for the flame-colour of the crown, and in having less grey on the hind neck. If we compare the American Golden-crested Wren with the European, we find that they agree in general appearance, in the proportional length of the quills, and in the form of the tail, as well as that of the biU and legs. Their differences are the following.

Regultis tricolor is longer by half an inch than R. cristatus, its bill is stronger and ^^ of an inch shorter, its claws are also stronger and shorter, and the flame-coloured patch on the head is more extended and brighter. The European species has never so much grey on the neck and back, and its lower parts are always more tinged with brownish-yellow. The other differences are not very obvious, but the difference in the size of the bill, were there no other characters, would be enough, in a family of birds so closely resembling each other as the Reguli, to point out the American as distinct from the European species.