218 STUDIES IN BIRD-MIGRATION 



Pratincola rubicola, Stonechat. — All that we know 

 about the Stonechat as a St Kilda bird is contained in 

 the brief statement made by the late Howard Saunders 

 in his Mamial of British Birds, p. 29, that he 

 ''observed it on St Kilda in August 1886." 



Troglodytes iiirtensis (Troglodytes troglodytes 

 HiRTENSis), Wi^en. — This bird came under the notice 

 of Martin (p. 46) in 1697 ; and Macaulay (p. 160) also 

 observed it sixty-one years later. The latter author 

 remarks, " How these little birds — I mean the Wrens 

 particularly — could have flown thither, or whether they 

 went accidentally in boats, I leave to be determined." 



The marked peculiarities in the plumage of the St 

 Kilda Wren, and its large size as compared with other 

 British examples, remained unnoticed until 1884, when 

 Seebohm {Zoologist, 1884, p. ZZZ) described it as a new 

 species, under the name of Troglodytes hirtensis, from 

 specimens obtained by Dixon in that year. It breeds 

 on Hirta, Soay, Dun, Boreray, and Stack an Armin. 



We found the Wren in all parts of Hirta, among the 

 boulders that fringe the head of the bay, in the walls 

 and cleits, among the crofts, on the screes and rocks on 

 the hillsides, and in the faces of the great cliffs. Three 

 nests were shown us. One of these was placed in a hole 

 worked in a mass of dead thrift on the face of a cliff; 

 the other two were placed between the stones forming 

 the inner walls of cleits, and were in excellent condition. 

 All these nests were composed of the blades and stems 

 of grasses, small tufts of grass, a little moss and dead 

 bracken, and were lined either entirely with white feathers 

 of a gull, or with a mixture of moss and white feathers. 



Hirundo rustica, Swallow. — The Swallow is 

 described by the Rev. Neil Mackenzie (p. 76), who 



