BIRDS OF NOKTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 645 



SALPINCTES OBSOLETUS OBSOLETUS (Say). 

 ROCK WREN. 



Adults {sexes alih'). — Above grayish brown or brownisli gray 

 (avoraging between hair brown and drab-gray"), changing on rump 

 to \inaceous-cinnainon, most of the surface marked with small wedge- 

 shaped spots or short stn^aks of dusky, terminated b}' a dot or speck 

 of dull whitish;^ middle rcctrices grayish brown, barred (more or less 

 distinctly) with dusky; remaining rectrices grayish brown, broadly 

 tipped with cinnamon-ljuff and crossed b}' a broad subterminal ])and 

 of black, the terminal butfy or cinnamomeous band more or less shaded 

 with pale grayish brown and mottled or vermiculated terminally with 

 darker, especialh' on outermost rectrix, which usualh' has one or more 

 additional but narrower bands of black and bully, especially on outer 

 web;'' a rather distinct but not sharpl}^ defined superciliary stripe of 

 whitish; a broad i)ostocular stripe of grayish brown, occup^'ing upper 

 portion (sometimes upper half) of auricular region; loral, suborbital, 

 and malar regions and lower portion of auricular region dull white or 

 brownish white, more or less mottled, streaked, or squamated witli 

 grayish brown; undei' parts dull white, passing into pale cinnamon- 

 buff or pinkish yinaceous-buff on flanks, the anal region and under 

 tail-coverts more or less strongly tinged with the same; throat and 

 chest (sometimes breast also) usuall}' more or less streaked with grayish 

 brown or dusky;'' under tail-coverts transversely spotted or barred 

 with dusk}-; maxilla dark horn color, with paler tomia; mandible pale 

 (pinkish gray or dull lilaceous in life), becoming more or less exten- 

 sively^ dusky terminally; iris brown; legs and feet black or blackish 

 brown. 



Young. — Similar to adults, but upper parts faintl}' and narrowly 

 barred or vermiculated (instead of streaked) with dusky, and lacking 

 any whitish dots or specks; cinnamomeous color of rump immaculate; 

 under parts immaculate, the white purer. 



Adult male.— l^iingih. (skins), 133.5-154 (llO.l); wing, 68-75 (T1.3); 

 tail, 50.5-59 (58.9); exposed culmen, 15.5-19.5 (17.8); tarsus, 18.5-23 

 (21.2); middle toe, 12.5-14.5 (13.7).* 



«The color is usually browner in worn summer plumage, grayer in fresh autumn 

 and winter plumage; but the variation is not entirely seasonal. The brownest 

 specimens are broccoli brown or drab. 



''These markings most distinct onpileum, lower buck, and hinder scapulars, often 

 entirely wanting on the hindneck, and frequently obsolete elsewhere (at least the 

 whitish dots), except on lower l)ack, etc. 



^^Sometnnos the outer web is barred for its entire length. 



''I am unable, from examination of specimens, to discover any correlatit)U in the 

 conspicuous variations in markings of the under parts in this subspecies with sex, 

 locality, or season. 



« Nineteen specimens (none from islands nor Lower California). 



