008 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



MICROCERCULUS DAULIAS Ridgway. 

 TALAMAKCA NIGHTINGALE WREN. 



Similar to M. philomela^ but larger and more rufescent brown. 



Adult. — Above plain rich brown (between mummy and vandyke), 

 the pileum duller or less ruddy, the feathers of the forehead ver}- 

 narrowly and indistinctly margined with darker, those of the lower 

 back with very narrow terminal margins of dusky (probabl}- indicating 

 recent molt from immature plumage); upper tail-coverts with a very 

 small and indistinct subterminal transverse spot or bar of dusky; tail 

 uniform dark sooty brown or blackish brown; lesser and middle wing- 

 coverts mumni}" brown, with an indistinct central area of a more gray- 

 ish hue, the middle coverts with an indistinct subterminal shaft-streak 

 of dusky; greater coverts dusky, broadly edged with brown, showing 

 very faint narrow bars of dusky, some of them with a minute and 

 very indistinct terminal spot of pale brown; remiges blackish brown, 

 very faintlj' edged and barred with lighter, or more decided, brown, 

 the primaries indistinctly edged with dull grayish; sides of head, includ- 

 ing loral, suborbital, auricular, and malar regions plain brownish 

 gra}', the chin and throat similar but paler (pale drab-graj"); chest, 

 median portion of breast, and upper abdomen deeper brownish gray, 

 the feathers with a V-shaped subterminal mark of dusky, these mark- 

 ings smaller, more sagittate (spot-like) on chest, larger and distinctly 

 V-shaped on breast and upper abdomen; sides, flanks, under tail-coverts, 

 thighs, and lower abdomen deep mummy brown, the sides intermixed 

 with brownish gra}^ and with indistinct dusky shaft-streaks; bill black, 

 the under portion of mandible (except terminally) dull brownish white 

 (in dried skin); legs and feet blackish brown; length (skin), 113; wing, 

 51>; tail, 21; exposed culmen, 18; tarsus, 21; middle toe, 16.^ 



Yoimg. — Similar to the adult, but brown of upper parts broken by 

 dusky crescentic terminal bars and central spots to feathers of pileum, 

 and dusky terminal and subterminal bars to feathers of back, scapu- 

 lars, and rump; lesser wing-coverts distincth^ barred with dusky; 

 middle coverts with a narrow blackish terminal bar, immediatelj^ pre- 

 ceded b}^ a broader subterminal bar of light brown, this margined 

 anteriorly by a narrow bar of dusk}'; greater coverts similarly but 

 less distinctlj^ marked; under parts yqvj differently colored from adult, 

 the whole surface (except chin and upper throat) strongly suffused 

 with mummy brown, except along median line, the throat and chest 

 regularly and distinctly barred with dusky, the sides and flanks also 

 regularly but less distinctly barred, the median portion of breast and 



« One specimen (type of M. orpheus), from Pacuare, eastern Costa Rica; Juan 

 Cooper. (No. 115037, coll. U. S. Nat. Mus.) 



