A REVIEW OF THE WRENS OF THE GENUS TROGLO- 

 DYTES. 



By Harry C. Oberholser, 



Assisiant Ornithologist, Department of Agriculture. 



The genus Troglodytes., as here restricted, comprises a group of 

 wrens that is wholly American. Notwithstanding very considerable 

 interspecific differences, no thoroughly satisfactory generic division 

 seems possible, further than the segregation of that peculiar form 

 Troglodytes hrowni. " While it is true that solstitialts and ochraceus 

 have short tails, large feet, rather slender bills, and somewhat peculiar 

 coloration, and therefore seem quite different from t3'pical Troglodytes 

 {aedon)^ yet this distinction loses any significance it appears to possess 

 when other forms are compared with these, particularly Troglodytes 

 s. rnacrourus, which is an evident subspecies of solstitialLs/ These 

 species — solstitialis and jts allies — have sometimes been referred to 

 Hemiura (= TJropsila)., but the}" certainh' are out of place in such posi- 

 tion, for the structure of the nostril is quite different in that group, 

 being round and open instead of linear and strongly opercuhite. 

 Furthermore, the West Indian forms commonly attributed to TJiryo- 

 thorus should be included in Troglodytes. Thus, although it is a far 

 cry from the slender bill and feet of aedon to the heavy beak and large 

 feet of tanneri or lausicus,' from the long wings of mus/eus- to the 

 shoi't ones of hrunneicollis; from the long tail of heani to the short 

 one of grenadensis or solstitialis; and from the gray and white colora- 

 tion of aztecus to the dark, almost uniform, reddish chestnut of 

 'rufescens, there is no place where the trenchant line of generic divi- 

 sion can be drawn. 



Ry far the most diflicult part of the genus is the so-called nu(.'<cidus 

 group, which, from lack of adequate material, has alwaj's been a 

 source of considerable annoyance to ornithologists. VN'hile our means 

 have not been all that could be desired, yet the interrelations of the 

 various forms have been worked out with the considerable care that 



"Bangs, Proc. New Eng. Zool. Club, III, 1902, p. 53. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXVII— No. 1354. 



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