5 
distinctly barred. I have examined two specimens of this bird in the British Museum, which 
measure—culmen 0°5 inch, wing 1:7, tail 1:2, tarsus 0°6.. Lord Walden informs me that 
“Cashmere examples appear to differ from Darjeeling birds. TZ. formosus, Walden (T. punc- 
tatus, Blyth, nec Brehm), ex Darjeeling, is also totally distinct.” In America the present 
species is replaced by an allied species which differs chiefly in having the bill stouter and 
straighter. This species, which by some naturalists has been considered identical with our 
European bird, was described under the name of Troglodytes hyemalis, Vieill. (Nouv. Dict. 
xxxiv. p. 514, 1819). Professor F. Baird, in his recent work on North-American birds (p. 155), 
writes as follows :—‘ The Winter Wren is very closely related to the common Wren (7. parvulus, 
Koch) of Europe, so much so, in fact, that the two almost seem to be varieties of one species. 
The differences, as shown in a large series from both continents, are the following :—In T. par- 
vulus there is a tendency to more uniform shades; and the prevailing tint anteriorly, beneath, is 
a pale yellowish ash, almost immaculate, instead of brownish ochraceous, showing minute specks 
and darker edges to the feathers. In extreme specimens of 7. parvulus the bars even on the tail 
and wings (except the primaries, where they are always distinct) are very obsolete, while on the 
lower parts they are confined to the flanks and crissum. Sometimes, however, specimens of the 
two are found which are almost undistinguishable from each other. In fact, it is only by taking 
the plainer European birds and comparing them with the darker American examples from the 
north-west coast, that the difference between 7. parvulus and T. hyemalis is readily appreciable.” 
These statements I can generally confirm, except that, in the specimens of 7. parvulus I have 
examined, the bars are by no means obsolete on the tail, but in almost all very clearly defined, 
unless Professor Baird refers to the light bars and not the dark ones. Moreover, as before stated, 
the American species has a stouter and straighter bill. 
In my collection I have a specimen of 7. hyemalis from Vancouver’s Island, collected at 
Fort Rupert by Mr. P. N. Compton, which in size is larger than our European species, measuring— 
culmen 0°6, wing 1-75, tail 1-35, tarsus 0:75,—and is much darker red, the underparts being dull 
rusty brown, instead of dirty brownish white as in our bird. 
In Alaska there is another species (Zroglodytes alascensis, Baird, Trans. Chicago Acad. 
Sci. 1, ii. p. 15, pl. xxx. fig. 3, 1869) differing in having a longer wing and bill and being 
generally larger than 7’. hyemalis. Professor Baird gives the habitat of this species as the 
«Aleutian and Pribylow islands, Alaska,” and the measurements as—culmen 0°65, wing 2°20, 
tail 1:60, tarsus 0°75. 
Like the Robin the Wren is one of the most familiar and best known of our birds; for it 
generally affects the immediate neighbourhood of inhabited places, and is usually to be seen in 
gardens, hedgerows, or faggot-stacks, often building in outhouses or in the woodbine-covered 
porches so often seen at cottages in the south of England. As pert and almost as bold as the 
Robin, its name is often coupled with that of this species; and I well recollect an early lesson 
taught to me by my nurse, when even in my tender years I showed my ornithological proclivities 
by robbing a Wren’s nest, that “ Little Cock Robin and Little Jenny Wren are God Almighty’s 
cock and hen,” and that therefore they should not be molested. I have since found that amongst 
the peasantry in the north of England not a few believe in the relationship between these two 
species as above referred to. Like the Robin the Wren is a bird that is but seldom molested, 
pega 
