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The French name for the Fire-crest, however, "Roitelet
Couch, who knew the Fire-crested Wren well, writing to me on the 23rd of March, 1877, says: "I had the head and part of a Fire-crest female brought me by a young lady. She told me her brother knocked down two, and the other had a beautiful red and gold crest; so it must have been the male." As Mr.
A very interesting account of the nesting of this bird is given by Mr. Dresser, in his 'Birds of Europe, he having made a journey to Altenkirchen, where the Fire-crest is numerous, on purpose to watch it in the breeding-season. The nest he describes as very like that of the Golden-crest; the eggs also are much like those of that bird, though a little redder in colour.
The Fire-crest is not mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, and there is no specimen at present in the Museum. WREN. Troglodytes parvulus, K.L. Koch. French, "Roitelet," "Troglodyte mignon," "Troglodyte ordinaire." The Wren is common and resident in all the Islands, and very generally distributed, being almost as common amongst the wild rocks on the coast as in the inland parts.
Its first cousin, the fire-crest, which is almost its exact counterpart, except for the flame-coloured crest, is much rarer; and I only remember seeing one specimen, to which with great circumspection I managed to approach quite closely, in the wood near my house.
The name Fire-crest has probably led to many mistakes between this bird and the Golden-crest, as a brightly-coloured male Gold-crest has the golden part of the crest quite as bright and as deeply coloured as the Fire-crest; and the female Fire-crest has a crest not a bit more deeply coloured than the female Gold-crest.
The Fire-crested Wren so closely resembles its confrère, the Golden-crested Wren, that only a practised eye can distinguish the difference between them." I do not quite agree with the 'Star' as to the Fire-crest not being "very uncommon," though it occasionally occurs. I do not think it can be considered as anything but a rare occasional straggler.
Couch knew both the Goldcrest and Fire-crest well, and the distinction between them, I have no doubt he rightly identified the bird which was brought to him. These and the pair in my collection are the only Guernsey specimens I can be certain of.
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