WILLOW-WREN. 435 



states that, though rather local, it is now common where it 

 does occur ; and indeed there is good reason for believing 

 that, being one of the species highly favoured by the spread 

 of plantations and the effects of strict game-preservation, 

 its numbers have generally increased of late years through- 

 out the country. It breeds regularly in every county of 

 Great Britain to Caithness, and in Ireland is commonly dis- 

 persed over suitable localities. It has not been traced to the 

 Hebrides, but it occurs occasionally in Orkney, and Dr. Sax- 

 by saw one which had reached Shetland, 29th October, 1865, 

 during a gale of wind. In the Faeroes also it has been twice 

 known to occur in autumn. Its range in summer reaches 

 very nearly, if not quite, to the North Cape, and in every 

 country of Europe it is a common bird. In Asia its limits 

 cannot be defined, from the confusion existing between it 

 and more than one allied species, but its occurrence in India 

 seems very doubtful, though Mr. Blanford believes he met 

 with it in the south-east of Persia. In Palestine, Canon 

 Tristram mentions its swarming in every part of the 

 country. In North-east Africa it appears to be pretty 

 common, wintering there and arriving even at Khartoum 

 and Berber so early as the end of August. A specimen 

 killed in Natal was examined by Mr. Gurney (Ibis, 1865, 

 p. 267), and others have been obtained by Andersson both in 

 Damaraland and Ovampoland, while Wahlberg many years 

 ago procured the species in Caffraria. It regularly visits 

 Morocco and Algeria in winter, but does not seem to have 

 been observed in any of the Atlantic Islands. 



In the adult male the bill is brown ; lower mandible pale 

 yellow-brown at the base : irides hazel : lores and upper ear- 

 coverts dusky; a light yellowish streak over the eye and ear- 

 coverts ; top of the head, neck, back and upper tail-coverts, 

 dull olive-green ; wing and tail-quills dull slate-brown, the 

 former edged with olive-gi-een — the tertials more so than the 

 primaries or secondaries ; chin, throat and breast, whitish, 

 but strongly tinged with yellow ; belly almost white ; flanks 

 and lower tail-coverts, tinged with yellow ; lower wing-coverts 

 bright yellow, particularly along the outer edge of the wing ; 



