VII TROGLODYTIDAE B2in 
Fam. IX. Troglodytidae.—The Wrens have their headquarters 
in Tropical America, but even reach Greenland, Patagonia, and the 
Falkland Islands. Four genera with some eight species inhabit 
the Himalayas, the hills of 
West China, the Burmese 
countries, Sumatra and Java ; 
while Zroglodytes, including 
the common Wren, occupies 
most of the Palaearctic and 
Nearctic Regions. An alti- 
tude of eleven thousand feet 
is attained in certain cases. 
The bill is generally 
moderate, slender, and some- 
what arched ; being, however, 
stouter and almost hooked in 
Thryothorus and Campylo- gro, 114,.—Wwren. 
rhynchus, much elongated in 
Catherpes, Salpinctes, and Microcerculus, high and compressed in 
Cyphorhinus, remarkably conical, straight, and pointed in Spheno- 
cichla. The maxilla may be notched, but rictal bristles are 
almost entirely absent. The long robust metatarsi are scutellated 
anteriorly, except in Pnotpyga , Salpinctes shews scales behind ; 
Cistothorus has a very large hind claw. The wings are rounded 
and concave; the tail is usually short and graduated, though it 
is exceptionally long in Cinnicerthia, Sphenocichla, and Urocichla, 
and is hardly visible in three species of Pnoépyga. The last-named 
genus has only six rectrices, Urocichla has ten. The coloration 
is ordinarily brown, with a great tendency to barring; spots, 
stripes, and streaks are not uncommon; chestnut, bay, orange, and 
grey often relieve the dulness; 7Zroglodytes formosus, Catherpes, 
and Henicorhina exhibit white spots above or even below ; and 
two species of MWicrocerculus have a white alar bar. 
Wrens frequent marshy, as well as dry or rocky localities, being 
familiar and yet wary; they habitually hop about with upturned 
tails, fly sharply from cover to cover, and hunt for insects, their 
larvae, and spiders, among fallen leaves, in crevices of rocks, and so 
forth, while they occasionally eat worms, small molluscs, crustaceans, 
and seeds. The characteristic note is shrill and Warbler-like, 
though harsher sounds accompany it, but Cyphorhinus cantans, the 
Troglodytes parvulus. x ¥. 
