460 



PASSE RES. 



TROGLODYTIDiE. 



TROGLODYTIDJi. 



Tkoglodytes parvulus, K. L. Koch*. 

 THE WREN. 



Troglodytes vulgaris f . 



Tkoolodytes, VieillotX- — Bill moderate, compressed, slightly curved, without 

 any notch and pointed. Nostrils basal, oval, partly covered by a membrane. 

 Wings very short, concave, rounded ; the first feather rather short, the fourth or 

 fifth feather the longest. Tail varialjle in length, but generally short ; its feathers 

 soft and rounded. Feet strong ; the tarsus rather long ; the middle toe united at 

 the base to the outer toe, but not to the inner toe ; hind toe rather long ; claws 

 long, stout and curved. Body-plumage long and soft. 



Our little established favourite, the Wren, was long in- 

 cluded among the Warblers ; but more than fifty years ago 

 certain ornithologists were pleased to remove it from that 

 group, and to place it with some other birds in a congeries 

 of heterogeneous forms, to most of which it has but a very 

 superficial resemblance. Consideration of the chief charac- 

 ters possessed by the Wren and its natural allies shews that 

 structurally they do not depart from the essential features of 

 the Passercs, and even that they belong to the normal divi- 



* Siiugthiere und Viigel Baierns, p. 101 (1816). 



t Fleming, Brit. Anini. p. 73 (1828). 



X Hist. Nat. des Oiseaiix de I'Amerique Seirtentrionale, ii. p. 52 (1807). 



