BIBDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 643 



Genus SALPINCTES Cabanis. 



Salpinctes Cabanis, in Wiegmann's Archiv. fiir Naturg., 1847 (i), 323. (Type, 

 Troglodytes obsoletus Say. ) 



Medium-sized Troglodytidas with inner toe (without claw) not reach- 

 ing to penultimate joint of middle toe, planta tarsi more or less divided 

 into segments (at least on inner side), the under parts mostly whitish 

 (sometimes speckled or barred with dusky), and tail with a subterminal 

 band (interrupted hy middle rectrices) of pale cinnamon. 



Bill shorter than head (sometimes nearly as long), slender, straight 

 (except extreme tip) ; exposed culmen shorter than tarsus but longer 

 than middle toe without claw, straight, or very nearlj^ so, to near tip, 

 where gradually but decidedly decurved; gonys decidedly shorter than 

 distance from nostril to tip of maxilla, straight or very faintly concave 

 terminally; maxillary tomium with slight subterminal notch or indi- 

 cation of one. Nostril longitudinal, guttate (the pointed end anterior), 

 overhung by a distinct though rather narrow corneous excurrent 

 operculum, its posterior end in contact with latero-frontal feathers. 

 Rictal bristles obsolete. Wing rather long, moderately rounded; eighth, 

 seventh, and sixth primaries longest, ninth about equal to third and 

 about twice as long as tenth. Tail nearly three-fourths as long as 

 wing, slightly rounded, the rectrices very broad. Tarsus equal to or 

 longer than exposed culmen, more than one-fourth as long as wing, 

 slender, the acrotarsium distinctly scutellate, the planta tarsi more 

 or less divided into segments, especially on inner side;" middle toe, 

 with claw, decidedly shorter than tarsus; lateral toes of very unequal 

 length, the inner (without claw) not reaching to middle (subterminal) 

 joint of middle toe, the outer scarcely reaching to beyond this joint, 

 its claw falling decidedly short of base of middle claw; hallux remark- 

 ably slender (no thicker than anterior toes), its length (without claw) 

 about equal to that of outer toe (without claw); basal phalanx of mid- 

 dle toe adherent for entire length to outer toe, for more than half its 

 length to inner toe. 



Coloration. — Above light grayish brown or brownish gray, becom- 

 ing cinnamomeous on rump, more or less speckled or dotted with 

 dusky and whitish; tail with a mottled terminal band, preceded by 

 one of pale cinnamon, this by one of black, these all (except the first) 

 interrupted by the median rectrices; under parts whitish, sometimes 

 streaked, speckled, or barred with dusky. 



Hange. — Western United States and southward through higher dis- 

 tricts of Mexico and Central America to northern Costa Rica. (Four 

 species ?) 



a These are sometimes (in very old birds?) obsolete for the upper half or more. 



