WOOD-WR EN.
PIIYLLOSCOPUS SIlilLATRIX.
AOCOIIUINU to my own observation, Wood-Wrens are either decidedly less numerous throughout the British
Islands than Willow-Wrens or Chiffohaffs, or they hetake themselves to their summer quartan 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 tlrst week in May ; anil in Scotland it is usually a week or
so later before their presence is recognised.
Though exceedingly local, this speeios may he found, if carefully sought for, in most counties in England
and Scotland. I remarked several pairs in Uleidyon in Perthshire, and also heard numbers singing in the
plantations on the smith side of I*)oh Maree in I lossy-shire. About Lairg ami Altuaharra, in Sutherland,
they frequented the groves rif larch in the vicinity of the lochs, and appeared by no means scarce in some
of the sheltered glens about Ilcrriedale, in Caithness. I did not meet with 1 be species in the neighbourhood
of the shores of the I'entlaud firth; but as plantations increase I have no donhl thaj will, in time, reach
that locality. In Sussex the Wood-Wren appears to have a partiality for woods containing high trees,
especially beech, the line II limber in Stanmer I'ark being one of the favourite haunts of Ibis bird.
Occasionally I have observed this species frequenting plantations of elm and oak ; I remarked this fact in
both Middlesex and Norfolk. lint a single specimen came under my notice in the broad-district on the
cast coast; and I believe the species is scarce in that part of the country. In Yorkshire I detected a lew in
the sheltered glen- and corries down which the mountain-streams run towards the east coast. As it was
bite in the summer, it is possible these birds were only working their way towards the south, as a second
search for them in the same locality proved fruitless. The west of Perthshire contains, in many of the
wildest glens, a quantity or large timber almost exclusively composed of beech. In some spots the-e line
trees cover a considerable amount of ground on the lower slopes of the mountains, or are scattered in small
clumps at intervals along Ihe river-banks or road-sides. In such localities Wood-Wrens arc to he heard
in numbers, their song being particularly attractive during fine summer weather. In a sheltered birch-wood
through which a hill-bum dashed down towards the Lyon, I remarked several Wood- and Willow-Wrens
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. Io 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 eight feet in height. As millious 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 he noticed gathering in the woods and plantation! near
the south coast previous to their departure across the ehauuel. I have seen a lew in gardens in the vicinity
of towns (though they usually prefer a more rural district), eagerly searching for iusecls among the trees and