418 NOTES ON THE 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Tail and wings about equal; bill shorter than head; above 

 reddish brown, darker towards the head, brighter on the rump. 

 Feathers everywhere except on head and neck, barred with 

 dusky; obscurely so on the back and still less on the rump. 

 All the tail feathers barred from the base, the contrast more 

 vivid on the exterior ones; beneath pale fulvous- white, tinged 

 with light brownish across the breast; posterior parts rather 

 dark brown, obscurely banded; under tail coverts whitish with 

 dusky bars; an indistinct line over the eye, eyelids, and loral 

 region, whitish; cheeks brown streaked with whitish. 



Length, 4.90; wing, 2.08; tail, 2. 



Habitat, eastern United States and west to Minnesota. 



TROGLODYTES AEDON PARKMANII (Audubon). (721a.) 



PARKMAN'S WREN. 



Accepting the differential characteristics, this variety is a 

 little the more numerous. At least it is so within my own 

 opportunities to measure fresh subjects. I am very familiar 

 with them as found on the Pacific coast from San Francisco to 

 San Diego, and the colors have apparently about the same rel- 

 ative difference which is found in nearly all species living 

 under like differences of humidity and sunshine. Ours are 

 manifestly darker, and consequently exhibit more rufous on 

 the lower back and rump. As to measures, I must see more 

 specimens in the flesh than I have yet seen to convince me 

 fully of the permanent and definable differences upon which 

 the variety has been instituted. As to the differences in the 

 songs, I can only say that there might be some which I could 

 not retain in my memory long enough to bring them home, 

 and keep them until the next year to compare them with birds 

 here, although in the case of several other species, 1 have suc- 

 ceeded in doing so because I could write them on a musical staff. 

 My skill never reached the measure of reproducing the song 

 of the House Wren. The dates of their migrations in either 

 spring or fall are the same as those of the other variety. I 

 have seen them still abundant till near the middle of Septem- 

 ber, and then on the advent of a severe frost, disappear en- 

 tirely in a single night. I think that like many other species, 

 they fly under such circumstances at night at an elevation 

 above the forests. When passing the electric light mast in 

 our city, 260 feet in height, small birds may be seen in a state 

 of confusion, flitting back and forth before resuming their 

 course. Indeed birds of all sizes including Pelicans, Geese 



