TKOGLODTTID^ — THE WEENS AND MOCKING-THEUSHES. 97 



Hab. North America east of the Rocky Mountains, breeding chiefly north ot the 

 United States; south in winter nearly or quite to the Gulf coast. 



"Sp. Chae. Bill very straight, slender, and conical; shorter than the head. Tail con- 

 siderably shorter than the wing-;, which reach to its middle. Upper parts reddish brown; 

 becoming brighter to tho rump and tail; everywhere, except on the head arid upper part 

 ot the back, with transverse bars ot dusky and ot lighter. Scapulars and wing-coverts 

 with spots of white. Beneath pale reddish brown, barred on the posterior halt ot 

 the body with dusky and whitish, and spotted with white more anteriorly; outer web ot 

 primaries similarly spotted with pale brownish white. An indistinct pale line over the 

 eye. Length, about 4 inches; wing, 1.66; tail, 1.26." {Hist. N. Am. B.) 



"First Plumage: male. Remiges, rectrices, etc., as in adult; rest of upper parts dark 

 reddish brown, becoming more dusky anteriorly; no trace of bars except on wings and 

 tail. Beneath dull smoky brown, with a strong ferruginous suffusion on sides, anal 

 region, and crissum; every feather ot under parts with a bar ot dark brown. From a 

 specimen in my collection taken at Upton, Me., August 4, 1874." (Bbewsteb, Bull. Nutt. 

 Orn. Club, Jan., 1878, p. 22.) 



This little bird visits Illinois only at the approach of cold 

 weather, and leaves with the advent of spring. He frequents chiefly 

 the woods, more especially in bottom lands, where he may be seen 

 about old logs, hopping nimbly in and out among the knot-holes and 

 other hollow places, then flitting, hke a brown butterfly, to another 

 place of refuge on the too near approach of an intruder. Occasion- 

 ally he may be seen about wood-piles or lumber-yards within towns, 

 but he is never on the same degree of intimacy with man as the 

 House Wren, partaking, in his sylvan proclivities, more of the 

 nature of his larger and brighter-colored relative, the Carolina 

 "Wren. 



Genus CISTOTHORUS Cabanis. 



Cistothorus Cabanis, Mus. Heln. i, 1850, 77. Type, Troglodytes stellai is Lioht. 

 Telmatodytes Cabanis. Mus. Hein. i, 1850, 78. Type, Thryothorus arundinaceus 

 YiEnAj.,=Certhia palustris WrLS.) 



"Gen. Char. Bill about as long as the head or much shorter, much compressed, not 

 notched, gently deeurved from the middle; the gonys slightly concave or straight. Toes 

 reaching to the end of the tail. Tarsus longer than the middle toe. Hind toe longer than 

 the lateral, shorter than the middle. Lateral toes about equal. Hind toe longer than or 

 equal to its digit. Wings rather longer than the tail, all the leathers ot which are much 

 graduated; the lateral only two thirds the middle. The feathers narrow. Back black, 

 conspicuously streaked with white. 



"Of this genus there are two sections, Cistothorus proper and Tel- 

 matodytes, the diagnoses of which have already been given. The 

 two North American species present the feature, unique among our 

 Wrens, of white streaks on the back. 



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