Vol. XIX 

 1902 



I Oberholser, The Wrens of the Genus A7iorthura. 17^ 



A SYNOPSIS OF THE GENUS COMMONLY CALLED 

 ANORTHURA. 



BY HARRY C. OBERHOLSER. 



The group of birds that among others includes the common 

 European Wren and the American Winter Wren is apparently well 

 worthy of generic segregation. To this genus, when recognized in 

 nomenclature, the name Anortlni7-a has been applied, although 

 quite erroneously, as has been shown by Professor Newton,^ and 

 still more recently by Mr. Howe.^ The term Anorthura is a strict 

 equivalent of Troglodytes, as the following quotation conclusively 

 proves: 



" I have thought it expedient to substitute a new name \_Anor- 

 ihura\ for this genus, instead of the received one. Troglodytes, 

 which is taken from a false notion that the Wrens live in caverns, 

 as the ancient people named Troglodyta, are recorded to have 

 done." 3 



That this state of affairs should have remained so long unno- 

 ticed is due probably to the overlooking of the original description 

 which occurs on page 6, instead of page 570 as apparently always 

 quoted. Even Mr. Howe gives only the latter. 



In seeking a name for the short-tailed wrens thus bereft of their 

 commonly accepted designation, Mr. Howe arrives at the conclu- 

 . sion that they must be called Troglodytes, and the group now 

 known by that name must pass as HylcDiathrous ; his reasons for 

 which may be ascertained by consulting his note.* This, how- 

 ever, does not seem to be the best way out of the difficulty. 

 While Vieillot proposed the generic term Troglodytes ^ evidently 

 for all the wrens then known, he actually included but three spe- 

 cies, — Troglodytes aedofi Vieillot, Motacilla fiilva Gmelin [^Trog- 



1 Dictionary of Birds, 1896, p. 1051. 



^Auk, XIX, 1902, p. 89. 



^ Rennie, Montagu's Ornith. Diet. Brit. Birds, ed. 2, 1831, p. 6. 



*Auk, XIX, 1902, pp. 89, 90. 



^Hist. Nat. Ois. Am. Sept., II, 1807, p. 52. 



