368 NUTHATCH. 



a streak of black ; the throat and cheeks are 

 nearly pure white, and the rest of the under parts 

 are buff orange ; upon the flanks and thighs 

 chestnut brown ; the under tail coverts are white 

 edged with chestnut brown ; the wings are 

 brownish black ; the feathers forming the spurious 

 quill edged with white ; the secondaries edged 

 with gray ; the centre of the outer webs of 

 the principal quills marked with grayish white, 

 and forming, when the wing is closed, an indis- 

 tinct diagonal bar across ; the tail, with the excep- 

 tion of the centre feathers, is black at the base ; 

 the tip of that next the centre greyish white, 

 which colour increases in breadth to the outside, 

 and shades into a bar of white across the two 

 outer feathers. The female appears to vary by 

 having the black on the sides of the neck running 

 down for a less distance, and in wanting the 

 chestnut on the flanks and under coverts. Mr 

 Salmon mentions an unusual variety almost 

 white, having only a few chocolate feathers on 

 the breast, and here and there a dark feather 

 intermixed with the rest of the plumage ; the legs 

 and bill were quite white.* 



The next British form among the Certhiadae is 

 represented by the Wrens, Troglodytes, of which 

 we possess a single species. The birds composing 

 this genus are all of diminutive size, of plain and 

 unobtrusive shades of brown, and are extremely 



* London's Mag. Nat. Hist, VIII. p. 112. 



