myiotherijSI^. 491 



perhaps the Khasia hills. Bonaparte, in his Conspectus, gives two 

 species of Micrura from Java, 



Gen. Troglodytes, Vieillot. 



Char. — Bill rather long, slender, compressed, entire ; wings 

 short, rounded ; tail short, narrow, and rounded ; tarsus moderate 

 or rather short ; toes long ; lateral toes nearly equal ; middle toe 

 lengthened ; claws moderately curved ; hind claw large. 



The true Wrens of Europe, N. America, and India, are plain-colo- 

 red small birds, whose place in the natural system is not universally 

 agreed on by naturalists. Some place them as a separate family 

 of the CerthiadcB, among the Tenuirostral tribe ; others place them 

 with the lesser warblers ; Horsfield and Blyth place them in our 

 present sub-family, and I quite agree with them. As previously 

 stated, by means of the American Wrens, ThryotJiorus, and their 

 affines, they quite grade into the Ant-Thrushes. The European and 

 N. American Wrens are familiar birds, living in hedge-rows and 

 bushy ground, on insects, and occasionally seeds, and having a plea- 

 sant little song. They form a dome-shaped nest, with a hole at one 

 side, and lay numerous eggs. The Indian Wrens are rare, and their 

 habits being most retired, have been but little noticed. 



333. Troglodytes nipalensis, Hodgson. 



Blyth, J. A. S., XIV., 589 — T. subhemalayanus, HoDGS., apud 

 Gray, Cat. Birds of Nepal — Blyth, Cat. 917 — HoRsr., Cat. 243 

 — Marchok-plw^ Lepch. 



The Nepal Wren. 



Bcscr. — Above, includiag wings and tail, umber-brown with dark 

 bars; beneath pale brown, with numerous very narrow brown cross- 

 bars. Bill brown ; legs horny-brown ; irides hazel-brown : about 

 the size of the English Wren. 



It differs slightly from the European Wren in its darker color, 

 and having the back more barred, and the under parts throughout 

 distinctly barred, and more closely so than the upper parts; bill, 

 too, shorter and wider at the base. It has been found in Nepal and 

 Sikhim, and the N. W. Himalayas. I saw it on one or two occa- 

 sions only, in some tliick brush-wood by the side of a mountain- 



