334 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



fall is only a few inches, the colour is very pale and grey. 

 In Sikkim, where the rainfall is a few yards, the colour is very 

 dark and rufous. The other characters relied upon to diagnose 

 the supposed species appear to intergrade in every direction. 

 The absence of an eye-stripe seems to be correllated with 

 the presence of bars on the throat and breast. These characters 



Troglodytes hirtensis, Seebohm. 



are strongest in T. nipalensis, less developed in T.fumigatus and 

 ahnost or quite lost in the other forms. The bars on the back 

 are most developed in T. hirtensis, less so in T. pallescens, still 

 less so in T. hergensis, but always fairly developed in some 

 examples from every locality, perhaps least so in those from 

 England. The greater the number of examples which may be 

 examined, the more clearly appears the fact that it is impossible 

 to draw a hard-and-fast line between any of the climatic races of 

 the Common Wren, which is an excellent example of a widely- 



