TROGLODYTES. 361 



the upper surface. The distribution of the colour is much the 

 same, but much more minute. Throat and abdomen dull white. 

 Flanks and under tail-coverts orange-buff. 



Breeding-season. Unrecorded in British Guiana. 



Nest. " Consists of dry sticks and placed under the rafters of 

 inhabited houses " (^H. Lloyd Price); "they build their little nests 

 in all sorts of places " {J. J. Quelcli). 



Eggs. " Brownish -white, closely speckled with red" (/7. Lloyd 

 Price). 



liange in British Guiana. Upper Takutu Mountains [McConnell 

 collection). 



Extralimital Range. Venezuela. 



Habits. Mr. H. Lloyd Price (Timehri (2) v. p. 66), writing on 

 the nests and eggs of some common Guiana birds, remarks : — " A 

 sniiill wren of a brownish-red colour {^Troglodytes furvus) is 

 frequently to be seen, especially near inhabited houses, under the 

 rafters of which it builds a nest of dry sticks ; the eggs are 

 brownish-white, closely speckled with red. - This bird has a 

 pleasant wEfrble very uncominon amongst the colonial birds." 



Mr. Quelch (Timehri (2) v. p. 74) observed this species in 

 Georgetown, and remarks : — " Throughout the town, in the gardens 

 and in the galleries of the houses, the little warbling wrens 

 {Troglodytes furvus) are to be heard at all times of the year and 

 at all hours of the day. They are feailess little things, jumping 

 about the window-sills, peering into nooks and crannies careless 

 of the presence of man, and enlivening and cheering with their 

 melodious warblings. They build their little nests in all sorts of 

 places — in the galleries, in the bed-rooms, under the house, along 

 ledges, under the eaves, within empty flower-pots, inside old pipes, 

 and in other odd situations, often approached by apertures to be 

 passed only by small objects like themselves. 



" Unfortunately, as a race, they are subjected to the parasitic 

 nesting habits of the Icterine bizy -birds (Molothrus atro-nitens) , 

 which are often to be seen spying out the homes of the wrens ; 

 and the little creatures, in finding out places inaccessible to the 

 larger bodied lazy-birds, often seem to be all alive to the risks of 

 careless building. When the eggs of the parasite are once 

 deposited, the destruction of the brood of wrens is secured, the 

 lazy-birds hatching sooner than the young wrens and causing 

 their displacement. 



