498 



Adult Female. Undistinguishable from the male in plumage, but a trifle less in size. 

 Young. Resembles the adult, but is a trifle duller in colour. 



The Wood- Wren has a more restricted range in Europe than the Chiffchaff and Willow- Wren ; 

 for it only extends northward into Southern Scandinavia, being a summer visitant throughout 

 Europe eastward about as far as the Ural, and migrates southward into North Africa, where 

 it winters. 



In Great Britain it is tolerably widely distributed ; for it breeds, Professor Newton says, " in 

 all the counties of England and Wales ; but in the west of Cornwall, according to Mr. Rodd, it 

 has only been seen once." In Dorsetshire it is, Mr. Mansel-Pleydell says, much more local than 

 the Willow- Wren ; and it is tolerably common in most of the southern counties. In North 

 Lincolnshire and Holderness it is, Mr. Cordeaux says (B. of Humber Dist. p. 35), a rather rare 

 summer visitant, and of much less frequent occurrence than formerly ; but Professor Newton 

 says that in certain parts of Yorkshire and Durham it would seem to be more abundant than 

 elsewhere in the kingdom. In Scotland it is stated to breed regularly in the southern and 

 midland counties, extending, according to Mr. Robert Gray, northward to Loch na Nuagh, in 

 Inverness-shire, and eastward to Fyvie, in Aberdeenshire, where, however, it is said to be very 

 rare. In Ireland it is scarcely known to occur, the only instances of its having been met with 

 being those recorded by Mr. Harting, who (Handb. Brit. B. p. 17) writes as follows: — "Sir 

 Victor Brooke informs me that he shot a Wood- Wren in his park, in the co. Fermanagh, in June 

 1870; and Mr. Blake-Knox, of Dalkey, has a specimen in his collection which was killed by a 

 boy with a catapult at Glen Druid, co. Dublin. 



In Scandinavia it does not range far north. Mr. Robert Collett informs me that it has not 

 been proved satisfactorily to inhabit Norway. It is certainly stated to have been observed in the 

 beech-woods at Laurvig, Christianiafjord, and may possibly be found there ; but, as Mr. Collett 

 remarks, no specimen has ever yet been killed within the limits of Norway and preserved so as 

 to verify the above statement. The late Professor Sundevall says that he does not believe that it 

 occurs further north in Sweden than Stockholm and Upsala, but up there it is rare. Von Wright 

 says it is scattered sparingly throughout Southern Finland, and is met with as far north as 

 Haminanlaks, near Kuopio, but not every year. Near Helsingfors a few pairs are found every 

 year; Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Alston say that it is not common near Archangel; and Mr. 

 Sabanaeff informs me that it is common in Central Russia, and, according to Kessler, more 

 numerous in the Kieff Government than the Willow- Wren. He met with it throughout the 

 Ural up to Bogosloffsk, and adds that it is more numerous in the Ural than in the non-evergreen 

 -woods of the Bashkir country. It appears to be tolerably common in suitable localities in 

 Germany ; and Herr E. von Homeyer informs me that it is by means rare in Pomerania, where 

 it arrives early in May, but is not generally met with before the 10th. It frequents conifer- 

 woods, or where conifers are intermixed with a few oaks, and not the true non-evergreen woods. 



Kjperbolling says that it arrives in Denmark early in May and leaves late in August, and 

 during its stay it is found chiefly in the large beech-woods. It appears to have increased in 

 numbers during the last few years ; for Mr. Fisher says that subsequent to 1862 he found it 

 much commoner in Vendsyssel than previously, and in June 1864 he found it very common in 



