CONCLUSION. 
It will perhaps be thought by some that I have strained a 
point in order to make things look a little worse than they 
are. Unfortunately they are really worse than I have made 
them appear, both with regard to the number of lost species, 
and to the falling off in the character of the bird population, 
owing to the rapid decrease of the most attractive forms, and 
a corresponding increase in those that are least attractive. 
With regard to the former point, there is reason to believe 
that at least four species not included in the list were once 
summer residents and breeders in Great Britain. These are 
the gos-hawk, night heron, little bittern, and Baillon’s crake. 
There is a fifth to be mentioned—the very small bird perched 
on the skull of a great bird figured on the cover of this 
pamphlet. In the little bird the ornithologist will at once 
recognize the St. Kilda wren; and when he considers that 
this small feathered creature is a dweller among the rocks 
near the sea, and frequently nests in crevices and holes just 
above high-water mark on the shores of that “ habitacle of 
birdes ” which the Great Auk once haunted, he will not 
regard the drawing as a representation of something purely 
fanciful. It will be remembered that about nine or ten 
years ago Mr. Charles Dixon found this wren quite common 
at St. Kilda, where it was the only small bird resident all the 
year. It differed from the common wren in its habits, and 
more powerful song; its paler ground colour and more 
distinct markings, and in its stouter legs and feet. On 
account of these distinguishing characters it was described 
as a new species — Troglodytes hirtensis. It is now believed 
by ornithologists that the St. Kilda wren is not specifically 
distinct from the wren of the mainland ; that it is a variety, 
