PASSERES — CERTHIDjE — TROGLODYTES. 
53 
GENUS TROGLODYTES. Vieillot. Cuvier. 
Bill usually long, slender, sharp, compressed, without notch, or at least only a slight vestige. 
Nostrils oval, oblong, obvious, half closed by a membrane. Tongue slender, ending at 
the tip in two or three small rigid bristles. Tarsus longer than the middle toe, with eight 
anterior distinct scutellre. Inner toe free ; posterior with a larger nail than the rest. Wings 
short, rounded, concave, with a spurious feather: third, fourth and fifth quills longest. Fe¬ 
male and male differ little in plumage. Tail usually erected. Live exclusively on insects. 
Obs. This genus has been separated into two by modern systematists : In Troglodytes, 
the bill is slender from the base, the spurious feather moderate, and the hind toe equal to the 
inner; in Thryothorus, the bill is rather thick at the base, the spurious feather long and 
broad, and the hind toe longer than the inner. The genus, as it now stands, is very natural, 
does not comprise many species, and the distinctions do not appear of sufficient magnitude to 
require the introduction of a new genus. 
THE HOUSE WREN. 
Troglodytes .edon. 
PLATE XLIII. FIG. 97. 
(STATE COLLECTION. Male and female.) 
Troglodytes cedon. Vieillot, pi. 107. 
Sylvia domestica . Wilson, Am. Orn. Vol. 1, p. 129, pi. 8, fig. 3. 
T. ocdon et furvus. Bonaparte, Ann. Lyc. Vol. 2, p. 92 and 439. 
House Wren. Audubon, folio, pi. 83 (male, female and young); Orn. Biog. Vol. 4, p. 409. Nuttall, Man. 
Orn. Vol. 1, p. 423, figure. Richardson, Northein Zoology, Vol. 2, p. 316. Audubon, Birds 
of Ain. Vol. 2, p. 125, pi. 120. Giraud, Birds of Long island, p. 73. 
Characteristics. Dark brown, banded with blackish; beneath dull greyish, with obsolete 
bands. Tail rather long and rounded. Length, 4^ inches. 
Description. Bill, measured along the upper surface, half an inch long, without the 
slightest appearance of a notch. Nostrils with a membrane above. Tail wedge-shaped, 
arched. 
Color. Above deep brown, darkest on the head and neck, and lighter on the rump. All 
the feathers, except those of the head and neck, barred with dusky. Beneath, soiled white 
on the belly and vent; darker above, obscurely barred with dusky. Wings and tail strongly 
barred. Lower mandible flesh-colored. 
Length, 4 5. 
