We are unable to appreciate any such difference between the common North American Reguli as to warrant Cabanis in establishing a separate genus for the calendula. The bristly feather over the nostril is perhaps less compact and close, but it exists in a rudimentary condition.
The following synopsis will serve as diagnoses of the species:—
Head with entire cap in adult plain olivaceous, with a concealed patch of crimson. Hab. Whole of North America; south to Guatemala; Greenland … calendula.
Head with forehead and line over the eye white, bordered inside by black, and within this again is yellow, embracing an orange patch in the centre of the crown. Hab. Whole of North America … satrapa.
Head with forehead and line through the eye black, bordered inside by whitish, and within this again by black, embracing an orange-red patch in the centre of the crown. Hab. Banks of Schuylkill River, Pennsylvania … cuvieri.
Regulus satrapa, Licht.
GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET.
Regulus satrapa, Licht. Verz. 1823, No. 410.—Dall & Bannister (Alaska).—Lord (Vancouver Isl.).—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1859, 227; Review, 65.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1857, 212 (Orizaba).—Bædeker, Cab. Jour. IV, 33, pl. i, fig. 8 (eggs, from Labrador).—Pr. Max. Cab. Jour. 1858, 111.—Cooper & Suckley, P. R. R. R. XII, II, 1859, 174 (winters in W. Territory).—Lord, R. Art. Inst. Wool. 1864, 114 (nest?).—Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 476 (Texas, winter).—Samuels, 179.—Cooper, Birds Cal. 1, 32. Sylvia regulus, Wils.; Regulus cristatus, Vieill.; R. tricolor, Nutt., Aud.
Figures: Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. cxxxii.—Ib. Orn. Biog. II, pl. clxxxiii.—Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. II, pl. cvi.
Sp. Char. Above olive-green, brightest on the outer edges of the wing; tail-feathers tinged with brownish-gray towards the head. Forehead, a line over the eye and a space beneath it, white. Exterior of the crown before and laterally black, embracing a central patch of orange-red, encircled by gamboge-yellow. A dusky space around the eye. Wing-coverts with two yellowish-white bands, the posterior covering a similar band on the quills, succeeded by a broad dusky one. Under parts dull whitish. Length under 4 inches; wing, 2.25; tail, 1.80. Female without the orange-red central patch. Young birds without the colored crown.