YOUNG WRENS IN 80 A. 73 



containing more than six eggs. I have found 

 nests in Yorkshire on more than one occasion 

 containing seven and even eight. 



For purposes of comparison, we have also made a 

 photograph of a mainland fledgling Wren of about the 

 same age, and give the pictures herewith side by side. 



Curiously enough the Eider Duck, whose average 

 clutch is said on very good authority to number 



''''^^UPPPP- 



MAINLAND WREN. 



five eggs, and in whose nest I have myself seen as 

 many as eight at the Fame Islands, never lays 

 more than four at St. Kilda, according to the 

 natives, one of whom showed me a clutch with 

 that number in it. 



During the third week in June we did not see 

 a single young Wren in St. Kilda, where such 

 eggs as we had shown to us were quite fresh; but 

 in Soa, which is only separated by a narrow 

 channel, young birds were flying about the rocks 

 almost as strongly as their parents. We succeeded in 

 laying hands upon one, the adventurous particulars 



