568 
WOOD WREN. 
months they are absent in a more southern climate. It is well known, 
that all young- birds, without exception, at first mostly resemble the 
parent female, and, by degrees, those of the male sex become more mas- 
culine in plumage ; but the intermediate state partakes more or less of 
both ; and in no instance is so totally unlike either as the bird in ques- 
tion. If, on the other hand, the old birds of the red-backed species 
were capable of such a change, that which characterizes the Wood 
Shrike, would undoubtedly be their courting garment ; those colours 
which we noticed before as marks of maturity, would have been assumed 
when the exhilarating passion of love and soft desire fired their little 
breasts ; it is then and then alone, that every feather has its gaudiest 
tint. With all these reflections, founded on the known laws of nature, 
evinced by daily experience, we can have no more doubt of the 
identity of these two shrikes as distinct species, than we have that they 
are different from the butcher bird ; for there is not a greater difference 
between them, than between the flusher and the Wood Shrike. 
This species is found in most parts of the European Continent, but 
is rare in Holland ; and was found by Le Vaillant to be numerous in 
Afi’ica, Gmelin has given this as a mere variety of the flusher. 
WOOD SPITE. — A name for the Poppinjay. 
WOOD WREN Bech STEIN.) 
* Sylvia sibilatiix, Bechst. Naturg. Dent. 3, p. 561. — Ib. Tasschenb. Dent. p. 176. — 
Sylvia sylvicola, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp. 2. p. 53. sp. 1. — Linn. Trans. 4. p. 35. 
— Curruca sibilatrix, Flem. Br. Anim. p. 70. — Regulus non Cristatus major, 
Will. p. 164. — Ib. (Angl.) p. 228. — Bec-fin siffleur, Temm. Man. d’Orn. 1. p. 
223. — Griiner Sanger, Meyer, Tasschenb. Dent. l.p. 247. — Wood Wren, Linn. 
Trans. 2. p. 245. t. 24 Lath. Syn. 2. p. 237 — Mont. Orn. Diet Ib. Supp. 
— Sweet’s Br. Warbler, p. 10. — Green Wren, Albin, 2. t. 86. 6. — Larger Willow- 
Wren, White’s Hist. Selb. p. 55. — Yellow Willow-Wren, Bewick’s Br. Birds, 
1. p. 229. — Selby, pi. 47. fig. 2. p. 188. 
This bird remained long unnoticed as a distinct species, from its 
resemblance to the hay-bird, {^Sylvia trocliilus^ with which it is still 
frequently confounded.* It measures in length five inches and a half ; 
bill horn-colour ; upper mandible bent at the tip, and rather longer 
than the under ; irides hazel ; nostrils beset with bristles ; top of the 
head, neck, back, and tail-coverts olive green; throat and cheeks yellow, 
paler on the breast ; belly and vent of a most beautiful silvery white ; 
through the eye passes a yellow line ; wings and coverts brown, edged 
with green ; tail consisting of twelve feathers, rather forked, and of a 
brown colour, edged with green on the exterior webs, and with white 
on the interior, the first feather wanting the green edge ; under part of 
the shoulder bright yellow ; legs rather more than an inch long, of a 
horn-colour ; claws paler. 
