NOTES ON VARIOUS SPECIES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 133 



It is most regrettable that the wrong name, titys 

 (occasionally spelt tithys, tytis, tythis, litis, thytis, thitis, 

 tites !) has been used so long. The reason must have been 

 either that nobody carefully read Linnaeus' descriptions 

 of 1758 and 1766, or was familiar with the plumages of 

 female Common Redstarts. 



The Wrens of the British Isles. 



Much discrepancy has recently existed in the writings 

 of various authors concerning the generic name of the 

 European Wrens ; the term Troglodytes having been 

 restricted to a group of American Wrens with rather 

 longer bills and tails, while the European (and some 

 American] Wrens, which had been erroneously called 

 Anorthura by Sharpe, were baptized Olbiorchilus by 

 Mr. Oberholser, until Professor Lonnberg found out 

 that they had ah'eady received the name Nannus from 

 Billberg. All this trouble is, in my opinion, unnecessary, 

 because the generic separation of Troglodytes and Nannus 

 rests on such slight grounds, that the two supposed genera 

 are much better united, and in that case Troglodytes 

 remains as the oldest name of the genus. 



Studying the Wrens inhabiting the British Isles I 

 came to the following conclusions : 



Specimens from England, Scotland and Ireland are 

 alike and cannot be separated from the continental 

 form. 



The Wrens from the Shetland Islands are very different, 

 being very much larger, and therefore much nearer to 

 the forms inhabiting St. Kilda, the Faeroes, and Iceland. 

 The bill is as long as in T. troglodytes islandicus, the culmen 

 measuring 15-16 mm., but the wing is shorter ; those 

 of three males measuring only 52-53-3 mm., that of a 

 female 48-1 mm., against a wing of 57*5 to 61 mm. in 

 T. t. islandicus. The colour of the upper- side, especially 

 of the head and wings, is darker than in T. t. borealis 

 (from the Faeroes) and in T. t. islandicus, and the under- 



