482 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



cc. Pileum and hindneck broccoli brown; rump and upper tail-coverts wood 

 brown; flanks and under tail-coverts pale wood brown. 



Cistothorns polyglottus elegans, youngo (p. 485) 

 66. Larger (wing more than 45); a distinct buffy superciliary stripe. (Ecuador.) 



Cistothorus brnnneiceps (extralimital) 6 



CISTOTHORUS STELLARIS (Lichtenstein) . 

 short-buled marsh wren. 



Adults in spring and summer. — Pileum streaked with black and 

 light brown (between hair brown and raw umber), the black streaks 

 usually much broader than the brown ones, except on forehead, which 

 is sometimes uniform brown ;'^ hindneck light brown (between hair 

 brown and raw umber), sometimes indistinctly streaked with dusky, 

 back and scapulars black, narrowly streaked with brownish white, 

 some of the feathers edged with light brown, sometimes with outer 

 webs mostly of the latter color or spotted with the same; rump light 

 buffy brown or cinnamon-brown, more or less streaked or otherwise 

 Tariegated, chiefly along median line, with black and whitish; upper 

 tail-coverts light brown, barred with black . and tipped with dull 

 whitish; tail barred with black and light grayish brown in varying 

 relative proportion; wing-coverts pale buffy brown, barred or trans- 

 versely spotted with blackish; inner webs of tertials plain dusky, their 

 outer webs black with marginal triangular spots of brownish buff or 

 pale buffy brown; secondaries and primaries dusky, their outer webs 

 with broad marginal spots of pale buffy brown or brownish buff, 

 producing broad bands on closed wing; sides of head, including super- 

 ciliary region, pale brownish buff or dull brownish white, indistinctly 

 streaked with darker; malar region, chin, throat, breast, and abdomen 

 white (slightly dull or buffy); chest, sides, flanks, and under tail- 

 coverts cinnamon-buff, paler on chest (where sometimes very faint), 

 deeper on flanks and under tail-coverts; maxilla dusky, with paler 

 tomia; mandible dull pale yellowish (light pinkish in life), more or 

 less dusky terminally; legs and feet pale brownish (more pinkish in 

 life). 



Adults in autumn cwid winter. — Similar to the spring and summer 

 plumage, but more richly colored, especially the cinnamon-buff of the 

 under parts, which sometimes shows a few dusky subterminal bars or 

 spots and whitish terminal spots on flanks. 



«■ The young of other forms of the genus not seen by me. 



^ Oistothorus brunneiceps Salvin, Ibis, fourth ser., v, Jan., 1881, 129, pi. 3, flg. 1 

 (Sical, Ecuador; coll. Salvin and Godman); Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vi, 1881, 

 247. — (?) Cistothorus lequatorialis Lawrence, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., x, Feb., 

 1871, 3 (Pichincha, Ecuador; coll. Vassar College Mus.). 



"Frequently there is a large patch of uniform brown on the forehead; when the 

 black largely predominates on the pileum the narrow pale streaks are sometimes dull 

 brownish white. 



