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ON A NEW SPECIES OF BRITISH WREN. 

 By Henry Seebohm. 



The readers of my 'History of British Birds' are familiar 

 with the name of Mr. Charles Dixon, the author of ' Eural 

 Bird Life,' and most of them will doubtless have appreciated his 

 field notes, especially those made during his visit to Algeria in 

 1882. This year I arranged for him to visit St. Kilda, to procure 

 some notes respecting the birds of that interesting island for my 

 forthcoming volume. Amongst other valuable information he 

 has ascertained the existence of a Wren on St. Kilda, and has 

 brought home a skin of one of them, which differs in many 

 important respects from either the European or the Faroe Island 

 forms. Those ornithologists who regard the climatic races of this 

 bird as distinct species, will probably come to the conclusion 

 that the St. Kilda Wren is one of the most distinct, and I 

 propose to name it Troglodytes hirtensis, Hirta being the Gaelic 

 name of St. Kilda. If the climatic races of the Common Wren 

 be regarded as not worthy of specific rank, the St. Kilda Wren 

 may be described as Troglodytes parvulus hirtensis, which is a 

 contraction of Troglodytes parvulus, var. hirtensis, or of Troglo- 

 dytes parvulus, subsp. hirtensis, and is the style of nomenclature 

 adopted by the best ornithologists of America, and will no 

 doubt, in a very short time, be that adopted by the best 

 ornithologists of England also. The St. Kilda Wren most nearly 

 resembles Troglodytes parvulus pallescens, from the "Western 

 Aleutian Islands, but is much more distinctly barred on the 

 back and head, and almost free from any traces of spots on 

 the throat and breast. In general colour it is quite as pale 

 and slightly greyer than examples of Troglodytes parvulus 

 pallidus from Algeria and Turkestan. The bill resembles that 

 of Troglodytes parvulus horealis from the Faroe Islands. The 

 eye-stripe is as distinct as in typical examples from Europe, a 

 character which is least developed in T. parvulus nipalensis and 

 T. parvulus fumigatus. 



These various forms of Wren appear to difi"er in colour 

 according to climate, and not according to geographical dis- 

 tribution, except so far as it happens to be connected with 

 climate. In Algeria, Turkestan, and Cashmere, where the rain- 



