Plate XXIII, Fig. 1 



TROGLODYTES SOLSTITIALIS. 



OEQUATOEIAL WEEN). 



Troglodytes solstitialis 



Sclater, P.Z.S. 1858, p. 550, 1860, p. 84, et Cat. Am. Birds, p. 23. 



Supra rufescenti-brunneus unicolor, alls et canda nigro transfasciatis : uropygii maculis albis celatis nullis : 

 supereiliis distinctis et lateribus capitis fulvis : subtus fulvus, ventre medio albicante, crisso nigro transfasciato : 

 long, tota 3*9, alse 1*9, caudae 1*3, tarsi 0*8. 



Hob. in republ. Equator. (Fraser): Bogota (Mus. P.L.S.). 



THs little Wren was one of Mr. Fraser's discoveries during his expedition to Ecuador, 

 in 1857 and the following years. The species was met with in June 1858, in the vicinity of 

 Matos and Pinipi, — two little villages on one of the upper branches of the Pastazza, some dozen 

 leagues or so from Biobamba, and probably rather below 10,000 feet above the sea-level. 

 Two examples only were obtained, which were noted by Mr. Fraser as having the irides 

 " dark-hazel/' Other skins were subsequently procured near Nanegal in the same republic, 

 and Mr. Sclater's collection contains a single example of the same bird from Bogota, so that it 

 probably inhabits the whole of the elevated districts of New Granada and Ecuador. 



Troglodytes solstitialis is a smaller and shorter-winged species than the common T. furvus 

 of South America, which it generally resembles. It is also of a darker and more uniform 

 rufous above — and the belly is much lighter, nearly white in the middle. The ground-colour 

 of the tail in the present species is dark-brown like the back, and the black bands are closer 

 and more numerous. The crissum is banded, which is not the case in Troglodytes furvus^ and 

 there is a very distinct superciliary stripe, which is nearly evanescent in the allied species. 



Our figure of this species is taken from one of the typical specimens from Ecuador in 

 Sclater's collection. It is marked " male/ 5 but the sexes are in all probability identical. 



May, 1867. 



[45] 



