TR GL OD YTID.E — TROGL OD YTIN.E • WRENS. 291 



Cab., Mus. Hein., i, 1850, p. 80. Catnpylorhynchus (Spix, 1824) of all previous eds. of the 

 Key — a name which proves unavailable by our rules. See Auk, Jan. 1893, p. 86.) Cac- 

 tus Wrens. Of largest size in subfauiily ; length about 8.00. Tarsus scutellate behind. 

 Lateral toes of equal lengths. Wings and tail of about equal lengths. Tail broad, with wide 

 feathers. Tarsus a little longer than middle toe and claw. Upper parts with sharp white 

 streaks on a brown ground ; under parts boldly spotted with black on a white ground ; tail- 

 feathers barred with black and white. A neotropical genus of numerous species, one of which 

 overreaches our Mexican border. 



H. brunueicapil'lus. (Lat. brunneus, brown; capillus, hair.) Browx-headkd Cactus 

 Wrex. ^, adult : Back grayish-brown, marked with black and white, each feather having 

 a central wliite field several times indented with black. Whole crown of head and nape rich 

 dark wood-brown, immaculate. Along white superciliary stripe from nostril to nape. Beneath, 

 nearly pure white anteriorly, gradually shading behind into decided cinnamon-brown; throat and 

 fore part of breast marked with large, crowded, rounded black spots; rest of under parts with 

 small, sparse, oval or linear black spots, again enlarging on crissum. Wings darker and more 

 fuscous-brown than back ; all the quills with a series of numerous white or whitish indentations 

 along edges of both webs. Central tail-feathers like wings, with numerous more or less incom- 

 plete blackish bars ; other tail-feathers blackish, the outer with several broad white bars on both 

 webs, tlie rest with usually only a single complete white bar near end. Bill dark plumbeous, 

 paler below ; iris orange. Length near 8.00; wing 3.50 ; tail rather longer; bill 0.80 ; tarsus 

 1. 00; middle toe and claw 0.90. 9> adult: Quite like ^, but spots on throat and breast 

 rather smaller, therefore less crowded, and less strongly contrasting with the sparse speckling 

 I if the rest of under parts. Young: Similar to adult on upper parts, but throat whitish 

 with little speckling ; scarcely any spots on the rest of under parts, which are, however, 

 as decidedly cinnamon as those of the adults. Southwestern U. S., Texas, New Mexico, 

 Arizona, southern Utah and Nevada, portions of California, and S. into Mexico ; com- 

 mon in cactus and chaparral, building a large purse-shaped nest in bushes; eggs about 6, 

 1.00 X 0.68, white, but so uniformly and minutely dotted with reddish-brown as to produce a 

 nearly flat salmon-color. (If not Picolaptes brunneicapillus Lafr., this will stand as H. b. 

 couesi, after Sharpe, Cat. Br. Mus., vi, 1882, p. 196.) 



H. b. bryant'i. (To W. E. Bryant.) Bryant's Cactus Wren. Intermediate in all re- 

 spects between brunneicapillus and affinis ; thus connecting the two, and making it necessary 

 to reduce affinis to the grade of a subspecies; tail fully barred, and under parts pale, but 

 lieavily spotted. Lower California, N. into S. California ; a form best developed about 

 San Telmo, 50 miles N. of San Quentin, L. Cala. Anthony, Auk, July, 1894, p. 212; 

 July, 1895, p. 280; A. 0. U. List, 2d ed., 1895, No. 713 a. The describer discusses the ques- 

 tion whether, after all, this be not the form upon which Lafresnaye based his brunneicapillus 

 fri>m California ; if it be, bnjanti becomes a strict synonym. 



H. b. affl'nis. (Lat. affinis, affined, allied ; ad, and finis.) St. Lucas Cactus Wren. 

 Similar to the last. Cap reddish-brown, lighter instead of darker than back. Markings of 

 back very conspicuous, in strong streaks of black and white, these two colors bordering each 

 other with little or no indentation. Under parts nearly white, the black spots, though con- 

 spicuous, not enlarged and crowded on breast, but more regularly distributed. All the lateral 

 tail-feathers, instead of only the outer ones, crossed on both webs with numerous complete 

 wliite bars. The variations with sex and age correspond with those of H. brunneicapillus. 

 Lower California, Cape St. Lucas and northward. Nest and eggs as beftjre. (According to 

 Sharpe, I. c. p. 197, this is P. brunneicapillus Lafr.) Campijlorhynchus affinis of former 

 eds. of Key; A. 0. U. List, 1st ed., 1886, No. 714. Hdeodytes affinis A. 0. U. Li.st, Sixth 

 Suppl., Auk, Jan. 1894, p. 48. Heleodytes brunneicapillus affinis Anthony, Auk, July, 1895, 

 p. 280; A. 0. U. List, 2d ed., 1895, No. 713 b. 



