42G rBOCEEDJNGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Young in firnt plummie. — Female; No. 112317, U.S.N.M.; Lomita, 

 Texas, May 25, 1878; G. B. JSeniiett. Upper parts, iucludiug central 

 rectrices and basal portion of onter webs of all but outermost pair, 

 pale, grayish broccoli brown, lighter and more ochraceous on rump, 

 the feathers of which have hidden grayish white spots; tail barred with 

 black; wings and superior tail-coverts with obsolete transverse mark- 

 ings of darker brown ; rest of tail black, the two outer pairs of rectrices 

 tipped with dull gray and distally barred on exteinal webs with dull 

 white. Superciliary stripe dull white; clieeks brownish white, mixed 

 with darker; lower parts brownish white, faintly mottled on breast 

 with dusky; flanks rufescent gray; crissum tinged with ochraceous 

 and barred with black. 



This form of Bewick's wren is the one to which Baird's name leueo- 

 fjasfer is applicable, as the range, "southern borders of United States 

 into Mexi(;o," given by him, taken in connection with the specimens he 

 enumerates, clearly indicates. But it now seems quite certain that by 

 perhaps an interchange of labels Baird was in error when he identified, 

 the Texas Thryomanes with Gould's Troplodytes leucogastra.^ There 

 seems to be no reasonable doubt of the authenticity of the specimen 

 which Dr. Sharpe catalogues as the type of Troglodyics leucogastra 

 Gould,'^ for it came from the collection of the Zoological Society, where 

 Gould's type was supposed to have been; it was collected in Tamauli- 

 pas, Mexico, the type locality of Troglodytes {=Hemiura) Jcucogasfra, 

 whence, until recently, no other specimen (of Heminra) has been 

 recorded; and, fiinilly, it is undoubtedly a Heminra., thus agreeing per- 

 fectly with Gould's original descri])tion of Troglodytes leiicogastra, 

 while in that description the expression '■'■ crissoque yaUidi-hrunneis^^ 

 could not possibly apply to any form of Bewick's wren. Baird's term 

 leucogastcr, as nsed for the Thryomanes, thus having been based upon 

 a misidentiticatioif, can not, according to the usual procedure in such 

 cases, be considered entitled to recognition ; for in reality he proposed 

 no new name, but merely referred his specimens to a species already 

 described. 



The Texan form of Thryomanes may be readily distinguished from 

 heU'iclii by much paler, grayer coloration above, as well as by longer 

 tail, wing, culmen and middle toe. In fact, the lack ot intermediate 

 specimens strongly suggests the possibility of specific distinctness; but 

 the material at hand is not sufficient satisfactorily to determine this 

 ]ioint. 



Considerable individual difference is a])parent in cryptiis, even among 

 birds taken at the same season, many being noticeably darker, duller, 

 or more grayish brown above than the type. Worn summer birds 

 are grayer and, of courstj, much paler than specimens in fresh plumage, 



1 ScLitev aiul Salvin, Noiiienclntor Avium Neoirop., 1873, p. 155; Salvin and God- 

 man, Biol. Centv.-Anier., Avcs, 1S80, I, p. 95; Faxon, Auk, 1898, XV, p. 60. 



2 Cat. Birds Ihit. Mus., 1881, VI, p. 285. 



