106 TROGLODYTIDZ. 
scapulii plumis nigris, medialiter sordide albo striolatis; subtus fulvido-albus, gula et abdomine medio 
fere albis; crisso obsolete nigro notato; rostri maxilla fusca, mandibula et pedibus pallide corylinis. 
Long. tota 4:3, ale 1°75, caude 1-75, rostri a rictu 0°6, tarsi 0-7. (Descr. femine ex Duefias, Guatemala. 
Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Mexico, Orizaba (Sumichrast ') ; GUATEMALA, Lake of Duefias®® and grassy 
summit of Volcan de Agua (0. S.& F. D. G.); Panama, Chiriqui (Arcé 8) — 
Ecuapor 12, Parvu 122, Bonivia‘, Braziu?, Paraguay 1. 
The question of the value of the differences between the North-American Cistothorus 
stellaris and the Guatemalan bird called C. elegans has long been in dispute. After 
being a party to the separation of the latter in 1859, Mr. Sclater in his ‘ Catalogue of 
American Birds,’ published in 1862, united it to C. stellaris, a course of proceeding 
Prof. Baird in 1864 pronounced to be hasty, and accordingly granted C. elegans full specific 
rank. In 1874, however, the same writer, with due deliberation and with apparently 
the same materials before him, followed Mr. Sclater’s footsteps of 1862. The facts of 
the case appear to be as follows:—After making considerable allowance for variation in 
the size of the bill and in the amount of the striation of the feathers of the head, there 
still seems to remain as a tolerably permanent difference between the two birds the 
colour of the lower back and rump, which in C. stellaris are marked with longitudinal 
streaks like the back, and in C. elegans are more or less uniform fulvous-brown, occa- 
sionally crossed with transverse bars*; the flanks, too, of the southern race are destitute 
of any bars or spots, and the tarsi seem to be always longer. Guided by these tests we 
trace C. elegans to Bolivia, whence we have a single specimen which has been already 
called C. polyglotius*, raising the further question whether C. elegans is not after all 
the southern C. polyglottus, a bird described by Azara! and named by Vieillot?. Of 
the latter bird we have a Nattererian specimen before us, obtained at Villa de Castro in 
1820, and a Brazilian example belonging to the National Museum at Washington 
agreeing well together. The latter has already been set down, with doubt, as C, elegans. 
The only difference of any note between these two birds and C. elegans is in size, the 
wing, and especially the tarsi, being shorter in the Brazilian specimens. As the colour 
of the flanks and lower back is the same in both, we are inclined to think that the 
difference in dimensions is not sufficient to be considered of specific value. We are 
further of opinion that C. @quatorialis of Lawrence !! and C. graminicola of Tacza- 
nowski * are very probably referable to the same species, filling-in, as they do, links in 
its wide range. Lastly, with regard to the name of this Wren, if, as it seems to us by 
no means improbable, the North-American bird should be united with the southern (as 
has been already done by writers on North-American birds), C. polyglottus, proposed by 
Vieillot in 1819, has several years priority, and under this title all the rest should sink 
to synonyms. 
* These are exaggerated in the Plate. 
