WOOD -WREN. 
PUYLLOSCOPUS SIBIL ATRIX. 
AccordixCx to my own observation, Wood-TVA-ens are either decidedly less numerous throughout the British 
Islands than Willow- Wrens or Chiirchaffs, or they betake themselves to their summer quarters more 
speedily than their relatives, hut few being met with in the vicinity of the coast at the time of their arrival. 
I have seldom noticed many of these birds till the hrst week in May ; and in Scotland it is usually a week or 
so later before their presenee is recognized. 
Though exceedingly local, this species may he found, if carefully sought for, in most counties in England 
and Scotland. I remarked several pairs in Glenlyon in Perthshire, and also heard numbers singing in the 
plantations on the south side of Loch Maree in lloss-shire. About Lairg and Altnaharra, in Sutherland, 
they frequented the groves of larch in the vicinity of the lochs, and appeared by no means scarce in some 
of the sheltered glens about Berriedale, in Caithness. I did not meet with the species in the neighbourhood 
of the shores of the Pentland firth ; hut as plantations increase I have no doubt they will, in time, reach 
that locality. In Sussex the IVood-IVren appears to have a partiality for woods containing high tiees, 
especially beech, the fine old timber in Stanmer Park being one of the favourite haunts of this bird. 
Occasionally I have observed this species frequenting plantations of elm and oak ; I remarked this fact in 
both Middlesex and Norfolk. But a single specimen came under my notice in the broad-district on the 
east coast; and I believe the species is scarce in that part of the country. In Yorkshire I detected a few in 
the sheltered glens and corries down which the mountain-streams run towaids the east coast. As it was 
late in the summer, it is possilile these birds were only working their way towards the south, as a seeond 
search for them in the same locality proved fruitless. The west of Perthshire contains, in many of the 
wildest glens, a quantity of large timber almost exclusively composed of beech. In some spots these fine 
trees cover a considerable amount of ground on the lower slopes of the mountains, or are scattered in small 
clumps at intervals along the river-banks or road-sides. In such localities W^ood-W^rens are to be heard 
in numbers, their song being particularly attractive during fine summer weather. In a sheltered bireh-wood 
through which a hill-burn dashed down towards the Lyon, I remarked several Mood- and M illow-W^rens 
keeping up a continued concert, the murmur of the falling water, as it splashed over the rough stones, 
apparently inciting them to an additional display of their vocal powers. In the more northern counties 
these birds are forced to put up with the stunted birch or fir that alone contrive to exist in several of the 
rocky glens they frequent. I have repeatedly distinguished their note in plantations of larch of only 
six or eio-ht feet in height. As millions of small trees have, during the last few years, been planted on several 
estates, it is probable this species may shortly become more generally distributed throughout the Highlands. 
Towards the end of summer these birds may be noticed gathering in the woods and plantations near 
the south coast previous to their departure across the channel. I have seen a few in gardens in the vicinity 
of towns (though they usually prefer a more rural district), eagerly searching for insects among the trees and 
