ANORTHURA FORMOSA. 



Spotted Wren. 



Troglodytes punctata*, Blyth (nee Boie), Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xiv. p. 589 (1845)._Id. Cat. Birds Mus. As. Soc. 

 p. 158 (1849).-Bp. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 222 (1850).-Jerd. Birds of India, i. p. 492 (1862).-Gray, 

 Hand-1. Birds, i. p. 188, no. 2565 (18 69). —Hume, Stray Feathers, 1874, p. 525, 1877 p 238 1879 

 p. 93. 



Troglodytes formosus, Walden, Ibis, 1874, p. 91.— Ramsay, Orn. Mem. Tweed, p. 253 (1881). 

 Anorthura formosa, Sharpe, Brit. Mus. Cat. of Birds, vi. p. 279 (1881). 



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This would appear to be an extremely rare species ; for Dr. Jerdon in his ' Birds of India ' states that he had 

 only procured one specimen at Darjiling, so that up to the year 1862 this appears to have been the only one 

 obtained since Mr. Blyth's typical example. Mr. Hume's collection doubtless contains examples; but as far 

 as this country is concerned, I believe that only a single individual is known ; and that one is in the 

 collection of the late Marquis of Tweeddale. 



Some little controversy has arisen as to the name which this species should bear. It would seem that 

 before Mr. Blyth described the species the name punctatus had already been bestowed by Boie; but this 

 title has always been considered a synonym of Anorthura troglodytes; the Common Wren of Europe. Under 

 these circumstances the late Lord Tweeddale proposed the name of Troglodytes formosus for the Darjiling 

 species ; and to this Mr. Hume has taken exception. He writes : — " In this I am quite unable to concur ; 

 and as it involves, to my notion, a fundamental error in principle, I feel bound to protest against it. Hud 

 Brehm's name stood for the species to which it was applied, the proposed change would be correct ; but, as 

 a fact, the name does not stand, it has become a mere synonym, is dead for our purposes, and therefore 

 the adjective punctatus is again available to characterize some other species of the genus. Blyth did thus 

 utilize it, and his name punctatus should, in my opinion, most assuredly stand." I am sorry I cannot 

 follow Mr. Hume in his conclusions, backed up as they are by his argument in « Stray Feathers ' for 1877, 

 p. 238 ; for I think that if a name has been given to any species before, it is better not to employ it again 

 under any circumstances; and I have therefore adopted Lord Walden's correction. 



The present species stands quite alone in its coloration, and is much more like a true Timeliine bird 

 than a Wren. The following description is copied from Mr. Sharpe's ' Catalogue of Birds :' — 



Adult. General colour above smoky brown, inclining to dull rufous-brown on the lower back and rump, 

 and verging to more decided rufous on the upper tail-coverts ; on all the upper parts there are tiny rounded 

 subterminal spots of whitish or pale fulvous, margined with dusky blackish, these spots being absent only on 

 the crown of the head; wing-coverts dusky brown, with rather larger spots of buny whitish ; the greater 

 coverts rufous, mottled on the outer web and having a buffy-white spot at the tip ; quills blackish, externally 

 rufous, with five broad bands of black, the inner secondaries more narrowly barred and having a few 

 terminal spots of white ; tail rufous, barred with blackish, about nine narrow bars being perceptible on the 

 centre feathers ; lores and sides of face smoky brown, mottled with fulvous spots, indistinct on the lores but 

 plainer on the cheeks ; the ear-coverts streaked narrowly with fulvous ; throat light sandy buff, deepening 

 in colour on the breast and abdomen ; the whole under surface mottled with triangular whitish spots, which 

 are brought into relief by dusky central spots, all the feathers bordered by a thin dusky line and freckled 

 with minute dots of dusky blackish ; the flanks rather browner than the abdomen; under wing-coverts and 

 axillaries reddish brown, slightly mottled with dusky bars ; quills dusky brown below, ashy along the margin of 

 the inner web, and showing some fulvous bars towards the ends ; li bill horny brown ; legs pale brown ; iris 

 brown" (Jerdoii). Total length 46 inches, culmen 06, wing 175, tail 125, tarsus 07. 



I am indebted to Captain Wardlaw Ramsay for the loan of the specimen in the Tweeddale collection, from 

 which Mr. Sharpe's description was also taken. The figures in the Plate are drawn from this specimen, and 



represent the species of the natural size. 



[R. B. S.] 



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