BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 489 



TELMATODYTES PALUSTRIS PALUSTRIS (Wilson). 

 LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. 



Adults in spring and early summer/' — Pilenm dull black, more or 

 less brownish medially, usually with a broad and distinct thouj^h 

 never sharpl\' defined median area of olive-brown or broccoli Ijrown 

 on forehead and crown, occasionally contiimed to the hindneck, 

 dividing- the blackish into two widel}^ separated lateral broad stripes; 

 hindneck mostly plain brown; back (interscapular area) black, 

 streaked with white; scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts plain 

 brown (var3'ino' from nearh' broccoli brown to between raw umber 

 and mars brown), the last sometimes faintly barred with darker; 

 middle pair of rectrices brown, more or less distinctly barred with 

 dusky, the remaining- rectrices paler brown broadh" and regularly 

 barred with dull black, the inner Avebs blackish serrated along edges 

 and barred entirel}"^ across near tip with pale brown; lesser and middle 

 w^ing'-coverts plain brown, the latter sometimes with a small terminal 

 spot of pale brown or dull brownish white; g-reater coverts brown, 

 more or less distinctly barred with dusky (the bars sometimes obsolete); 

 outer webs of tertials mostly l)lack, but this more or less deepl}' indented 

 or serrated exteriorly with light brown; remiges otherwise dusky, the 

 secondaries edged, or serrated along edge, with pale brown, the pri- 

 maries similarh^ marked with still palei- and more grayish brown or 

 pale brownish gray; a narrow superciliary stripe of white, narrowl}' 

 streaked with blackish, extending to sides of occiput; a brow^n or 

 dusky postocular streak, varying in width and distinctness; loral and 

 suborbital regions dull grayish white or l)rownish white, the auricular 

 region (except upper margin) similar but moi'e strongly tinged with 

 brownish; malar region and under parts dull white, passing on sides 

 and ilunks into pale broccoli brown, wood ])rown, or isabeila color, the 

 chest usually faintly (rarely strongly) tinged with the same, the sides 

 and flanks sometimes more or less speckled or indistinctly barred with 

 darker bi'own or dusky; under tail-coverts brownish white or very 

 pale brown, usuall}^ narrowly barred with brownish or dusk}^, some- 

 times iimn:iculate; maxilla blackish brown or dusky with paler tomia; 

 mandible pale basally, more or less extensively duskv terminally: iris 

 brown; legs and feet brownish (in dried skins). 



Adults hi aiifjnnn and vinter. — Similiar to the spring and earl}' 

 summer plumage, but colors deeper and richer, the brown of rump 

 etc., more chestnut, that of sides and flanks deeper. 



Young. — Essentially like adults, but pattern of coloration less dis- 



«In late summer the jioneral coloration in, throngh fading and abrasion of the 

 plumage, murh duller, with the brown more grayish. In this eomlition the several 

 subspecies are nuich aliUc, their distinctive cnlonition liaviiiir, to a greater or le.s.s 

 degree, become uliliteratcd. 



