vii TROGLODYTIDAE 521 



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 Troglodytes, 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- Fia m ._ Wren . Troglodytes parmlus. xf. 



rhynchus, much elongated in 



Gather pes, 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 Pnoepyga ; 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 Pnoepyga. 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 ; Troglodytes formosus, Catherpes, 

 and Henicorhina exhibit white spots above or even below ; and 

 two species of Microcerculus 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 



