Perching Birds. 
83 
The Wren. 
case of the Gold-Crest. As in the Dippers, 
which are also allied to the true Wrens, there 
are no rictal bristles at the base of the bill, as 
in the Thrushes and Warblers. They have 
too a remarkably rounded wing, which fits to 
the form of the body, and resembles that of 
the Bush-babblers ( Timeliidce ). For the size of 
the bird, the volume of song which the Wren 
pours out is extraordinary. It is generally 
an inhabitant of dense hedges and under- 
growth, and is not often seen at any height in 
the trees. The tail is often carried at right 
angles to the back. The nest is a large one, 
composed principally of moss and leaves, and 
is placed in the stems of ivy against a large 
elm tree, or in the trellis-woirk of a summer-house or garden-building, and in all 
sorts of queer places. The eggs are four or six in number, sometimes nine. They 
are white with reddish-brown spots and tiny dots of the same colour. 
The Wrens which inhabit the outlying islands of Scotland 
appear to be somewhat larger than those of the mainland. 
Thus birds from the Shetlands are bigger than the ordinary 
run of British individuals, and this is especially the case 
with the S. Kilda Wrens, which exceed A. troglodytes in size and approach the 
larger Wren of the Faroes [A . borealis). The absence of trees on S. Kilda makes 
this Wren an inhabitant of the rocks, and it may be this rougher mode of 
life which has developed its more robust form and stronger legs. It sings as 
vigorously as the Common Wren, and builds a similar kind of nest, which it places 
in the holes of walls or under the shelter of a bush. The eggs are like those of 
A. troglodytes, but are larger and more boldly marked. 
This is a tropical family of birds, plentifully represented 
in Africa, India and China, but not a Palaearctic group at all. 
In fact the only species which comes within European limits 
is the Dusky Bulbul (Pycnonotus barbatus) which is found 
in North-western Africa (Algeria and Marocco). If any Bulbul occurred in Great 
Britain, it might have been expected to be this species, whose habitat is the neaiest 
to our shores, but the so-called ‘ Gold-vented Thrush ’ of the old British Lists is 
Pycnonotus capensis (see page 67), a species confined to the Cape Colony and not 
in any degree migratory. The specimen said to have been shot near Waterford, in 
January, 1848, by Dr. Burkitt must have been therefore an escaped individual. 
It is a brown bird with yellow under tail-coverts, and is one of the species which 
should be expunged from the list of British Birds. 
6 * 
THE S. KILDA 
WREN. 
(Aiwrtlmra hirtensis.) 
THE BULBULS. 
Family 
PYCNONOTIDM. 
