198 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



of the valley during the winter months, and are sometimes encountered 

 in brush piles along the canals and ditches. Here they climb over logs, 

 dodge into brush heaps, or pry into the holes in partly dead willows, 

 picking up from such places whatever offers in the way of food." 



Four eggs of this wren in the United States National Museum 

 measure 17.8 by 13.2, 16.5 by 12.7, 16.5 by 12.8, and 16.6 by 12.5 milli- 

 meters. 



THRYOMANES BEWICKII CORRECTUS Grinnell 



SAN DIEGO WREN 



HABITS 



The above name is the result of an unfortunate shift of names, which 

 Dr. Grinnell (1928) found necessary. This is the race of the San 

 Diegan region that Dr. Oberholser (1898) and Mr. Swarth (1916) 

 called charienturus. Dr. Grinnell discovered that wrens from the type 

 locality of charientuims^ in northern Baja California, were "almost in- 

 distinguishable from the San Pedro Martir race." This made it neces- 

 sary to transfer the name charienturus to the wrens of the San Pedro 

 Martir region and adjacent portions of northwestern Baja California 

 and to invent a new name for the wrens of the San Diegan district; 

 he promptly "corrected" the error by naming it correctus! He gives 

 the characters of correctus^ "as compared with T. h. drymoecus^ dorsal 

 tone of coloration decidedly lighter, 'warmer' brown, light bars on 

 tail paler, and tail longer." 



The 1931 Check-list gives the range of the San Diego wren as, "coastal 

 belt of California from the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, in San 

 Benito and Monterey counties, southeast through the San Diegan dis- 

 trict to near the Mexican boundary." 



In a general way, the haunts and habits of the San Diego wren are 

 similar to those of the surrounding subspecies, but Harry H. Dunn 

 (1902) gives a somewhat different impression of conditions in Orange 

 County; he says: "Wlierever there are rocky canyons, particularly 

 those which contain scattering pools of water, there will be found one 

 or more pairs. * * * It is never found far from rocks, and, in so 

 far as I am able to learn, never nests anywhere except in crevices of 

 rocky ledges, interstices between boulders, or in small caves. * * * 

 In many cases, especially where wood rats are abundant, the Wrens will 

 select a crevice between two rocks, into which even a rat cannot go. 

 * * * Where holes in the solid rock, as in the faces of numerous 

 southern California cliffs, are available, however, the little pair will 

 select a good sized cave and in its sandy floor scratch out a hole large 

 enough to hold a loosely woven nest." Such nesting sites seem more 

 characteristic of rock wrens or canyon wrens, but it seems hardly likely 

 that he could have been mistaken. 



Eggs. — The eggs of the San Diego wren are apparently indistin- 



