The DALMATIAN WREN (_Regulus modestus_).--"The only history of this
bird," says Mr. Gould, "that we have been able to collect was that
written on the label attached to it by the Baron de Feldegg, of
Frankfort, which is as follows:--'I shot this bird, which on dissection
proved to be a male, in Dalmatia, in the year 1829.' We were informed, at
the same time, that it was not known to any German ornithologists, and,
consequently, had not received a specific title. This we have ventured to
give, and suggest the term _modestus_, in allusion to its chaste plumage
and the absence of the crest, which forms so conspicuous a feature in
other species of this genus. Its most conspicuous characters are the
three yellow stripes which ornament the head; the brighter and most
highly coloured of these marks, contrary to what obtains in any other
_Reguli_, being that over each eye, while the coronal stripe is palest,
and consists of feathers similar in length to those which cover the rest
of the head. With the exception of the stripes on the head, the whole of
the upper surface is delicate olive green, becoming abruptly paler on
the rump; the quills and tail are brown, edged with pale yellow, which
is more conspicuous on the secondaries; two transverse bands of the
same colour cross the shoulders. The whole of the under surface is pale
greenish white; bill and tarsi brown."