U\() TRANSACTIONS UVKIU'OOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



bottom stones of the wall. I saw a nest in the latter 

 situation. In the third week in Juno the old birds were 

 busy feeding their young, which, from the loudness of 

 the cries proceeding from the walls of the cleits, appeared 

 to be well advanced. Resident. 



Saxicola cenanihe (Wheatear). 



Pretty plentiful all over the island, breeding amontrsl 

 piles of boulders, and in the stone walls of the cleits, etc. 



Troglodytes parvulus hirtensis (St. Kildan Wren). 



To Dixon belongs the credit of being the first to recog- 

 nize that the Wren inhabiting St. Eilda differed in some 

 respects from the common wren of our islands: and 

 these differences led Seebohm (9), to whom the specimens 

 obtained were submitted, to describe the 'bird as a distind 

 species under the name of Troglodytes hirtensis. Dresser 

 (10), however, considers that the differences are not 

 sufficiently great to justify the elevation of the bird to 

 specific rank, especially when it is compared with 

 examples of Wrens from other parts of Europe. The 

 latter view is, no doubt, correct, but the peculiarities of 

 the St. Kildan bird are, nevertheless, sufficiently pro- 

 nounced to constitute it a distinct local race or sub-species, 

 and as such the name which Seebohm gave it, may well, 

 in my opinion, be retained as the third term of a tri- 

 nomial series, as, indeed, Seebohm himself suggested as 

 an alternative to giving the bird specific rank. flic 

 St. Kildan Wren is about the same size as the common 

 wren of our islands, but the bill and feet are slightly 

 larger and stouter. The general tint of the plumage of 

 the St. Kildan bird is distinctly lighter than that of tin 4 

 common form, and the barring of the back from the neck 

 downwards is distinctly more pronounced ; the lighter 

 colour of the underparts of the St. Kildan bird is also 



