70 Mr. C. Dixon on the 



sublimely grand ocean-rock some of the rarest and the most 

 interesting birds in our fauna find a congenial home ; here 

 alone they may be studied at their breeding-places. Now 

 that it is known that St. Kilda possesses a Wren peculiar to 

 its rocky shores the interest attaching to it will be increased, 

 and the fact may serve to draw the attention of British orni- 

 thologists to the little bird's secluded home. It is very strange 

 that no complete list of the birds of this remote island has ever 

 been compiled by any modern ornithologist, and stranger still 

 is the indifference with which the place and its bird -treasares 

 have been treated by British naturalists during the past forty 

 years. Perhaps the difficulty of reaching St, Kilda and the 

 hardships, imaginary or real, which must of necessity be en- 

 dured, if the sojourn on its by no means hospitable shores is 

 for any length of time, are the chief reasons for its having 

 been so much neglected. Strange it seems that while British 

 ornithologists have journeyed far and wide over all parts 

 of the known world in the interests of their favourite 

 science, St. Kilda, the remotest part of the United Kingdom, 

 has been disregarded, and a bird has existed there which, 

 until the summer of last year, was absolutely unknown to 

 science. 



We find, perhaps, the earliest known record of the birds of 

 St. Kilda from the pen of " M. Martin, Gent.," written 

 in the year 1698, in his 'Voyage to St. Kilda; ^ but the 

 lonely island had attracted the attention of several previous 

 travellers, including Sir Robert Sibbald. Martin gave a by 

 no means bad account of the birds of these famous islands, 

 specially noting the Great Auk, which, as every naturalist 

 knows, once used St. Kilda as a breeding-station. He enume- 

 rates about twenty species, amongst them being a Wren, which 

 for nearly two hundred years has remained undetermined! 

 In addition to Martin, the following is a brief list of the 

 principal writers on the ornithology of the islands. A full 

 account of the birds of St. Kilda was given by the Rev. J. L. 

 Buchanan, in his 'Travels in the Western Hebrides between 

 the years 1782-1790.' In 1811 MacDonald published his 

 * General View of the Agriculture of the Hebrides,' which 



