296 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



comparatively stout and clumsy. In examples from the Shetland 

 Islands and from St. Kilda, robust feet appear to be the rule and 

 slender feet the exception ; whilst so far as is known the Faroe 

 Island race always has robust feet. 



The Common Wren only moults once a year, in autumn. 

 When newly moulted the colour is very rufous, almost coffee- 

 coloured ; but before the end of the summer the brilliancy of the 

 colour is lessened by wear and tear, and the more or less faded 

 and dirty coffee-colour looks slightly browner and greyer. The 

 abrasion of the feathers, and probably also some direct accession 

 of colour in spring, causes the bars across the lower back and the 

 under parts to become more distinct than they are in newly 

 moulted birds, but it is very unusual to find more than obscure 

 traces of bars, even in the most abraded examples, on the upper 

 back or breast. 



The insular races of the Common Wren are of course subject 

 to the same seasonal variation of colour as the typical form, but 

 in summer plumage (and probably also in autumn dress) the 

 bars across both the upper and under parts are very much more 

 conspicuous than they are in the most pronounced examples of 

 the typical form, and they extend to the upper back and breast, 

 which is very rarely the case in the typical form. 



There is also a marked difference in the general colour of the 

 various races. I have not seen recently moulted examples of 

 the insular races, but in comparison with the faded coffee-brown 

 of the summer plumage of the typical form, the Shetland and 

 Faroe races may be described as sooty-brown, and the St. Kilda 

 race as greyish-brown on the upper parts. 



Until a series of recently moulted autumn examples of the 

 insular races have been obtained, it is impossible to say whether 

 any of the European races of the Common Wren ought to be 

 regarded as specifically distinct from the typical form ; but there 

 can be no doubt that there are three or four subspecific forms 

 that must be recognized in some way, and I cannot see any 

 better way than that of calling the typical race Troglodytes par- 

 vulus, the desert race in Algeria and Turkestan T. parvulus 

 pallldus, the St. Kilda race T. parvulus hirtensis, and the Shet- 

 land and Faroe race T. parvulus borealis. 



An example from the Skellig Eocks, on the south-west coast 

 of Ireland, and one from the outer Hebrides, both belong to the 



