Todd-Carriker : Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 409 



boulders beneath falls and among tumbling rapids. When wounded 

 the birds will dive and swim under water like a grebe, and unless killed 

 outright are rarely secured. 



Family TROGLODYTID^. Wrens. 



375. MicTocerculus squamulatus corrasus Bangs. 



M'icrocerculus marginatus (not Heterocnemis marginatus Sclater) Bangs, 



Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XIII, 1899, 107 (Chirua). — Allen, Bull. Am. 



Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, 1900, 180 (Onaca). 

 Microcerculus corrasus Bangs, Proc. New England Z06I. Club, III, 1902, 87 



(Chirua; orig. descr. ; type now in coll. Mus. Comp. Z06I. ; crit.). — Shakfe, 



Hand-List Birds, IV, 1903, 98 (ref. orig. descr.; range).' — -Ridgway, Bull. 



U. S. Nat. Mus., No, 50, III, 1904, 666 (diag. ; range; references; crit.;. — 



Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXI, 1905, 278 (ref. orig. descr.; syn.). 



— Beabourne and Chubb, Birds S. Am., I, 1912, 340- (ref. orig. descr.'; 



range)-. — Hellmayr and von Seilern, Arch. f. Naturg., LXXVIII, 1912, 



45, footnote (ref. orig. descr.; crit.). 

 Microcerculus squamulatus corassus [sic] CHArMAN, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. 



Hist., XXXIV, 1915, 647, 648, in text ("Santa Marta" and Don Diego; 



meas. ; crit.). 



Two specimens : Don Diego. 



The various forms of Microcerculus are still involved in great con- 

 fusion, due largely to paucity of material, the. plumage-variations in 

 the group being very imperfectly understood. Mr. Bangs {Proceed- 

 ings Biological Society of Washington, XXII, 1909, 34) has adduced 

 good reasons for suspecting that there may be but one form in Central 

 America, and it is altogether likely, reasoning by analogy, that some 

 changes will have to be made in the status of the currently recognized 

 South American forms also. It seems .clear, for instance, that the 

 form inhabiting the Santa Marta region will require reduction to a 

 subspecies of M. squamulatus, as has already been proposed by Dr. 

 Chapman. It differs from typical squamulatus in its paler brown, less 

 rufescent color of the upper parts and flanks, and by its more narrowly 

 barred under surface, with the brown wash of the sides and flanks more 

 restricted. Both our specimens appear to be fully adult; they are ap- 

 proached by immature examples of squamulatus in the color of the 

 upper surface, but adults of the latter are sufficiently different. 



This wren was described by Mr; Bangs from a single specimen col- 

 lected by Mr. Brown at Chirua, March 13, 1899, and labelled as having 



