SPHENOCICHLA HUMIL 



Hume's Wedg-e-billed Wren. 



Heterorhynchus humii, Mandelli, Str. F. 1873, p. 415. 



Stachyrirhynchus humii, Hume, Str. F. 1879, p. 95. 



Sphenocichla humii, Sharpe, Brit. Mus. Cat. vi. p. 283 (1881 : e). 



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This extraordinary bird was described by Mr. Mandelli from specimens procured in Native Sikhim, and 

 was named by him Heterorhynchus. This title, however, had already been employed by Lafresnaye, and 

 Mr. Hume's name of Stachyrirhynchus would have had to be used ; but before the latter was published, 

 Colonel Godwin-Austen and Lord Tweeddale had described a second species from Munipur, which they had 

 called Sphenocichla,', and there can be no doubt that this is the correct generic name to be employed. 



Mr. Hume's proposed title is a very good one for expressing- the affinities of the genus ; for the wedge- 

 shaped bill is very similar to that of Stachyris ; and at the same time the absence of bristles to the gape 

 proves that it is a true Wren, and its place in the family is probably close to Pnoepyga. 



As the birds were lent me by Colonel Godwin-Austen as two distinct species, I have figured S. roherti 

 as different from S. humii ; but I must express great doubts as to their being really two species, and 

 Mr. Sharpe considers them undoubtedly identical. 



The following is a description of S. humii, taken from the British Museum ' Catalogue of Birds,' where 

 Mr. Sharpe has described it as the male of the species. 



"Adult male. General colour above scaly, the feathers being brown in the centre, edged with black, the 

 feathers on the head and mantle with buffy-white shaft-lines, less distinct on the lower back and rump, the 

 dorsal feathers indistinctly waved with narrow blackish cross-bars ; upper tail-coverts reddish brown, 

 narrowly barred with indistinct blackish cross lines ; wing-coverts like the back, edged and obscurely barred 

 in the same manner ; some of the greater coverts more ochraceous brown towards the tips ; quills blackish 

 brown, obscurely barred with lighter brown and black externally, the bars a little more distinct towards the 

 end of the secondaries ; upper tail-coverts and tail rather more reddish brown, numerously barred with 

 blackish brown, the bars about twenty-one in number ; forehead blacker than the head, with very distinct 

 white shaft-streaks, the lores and sides of the crown similarly coloured; an eyebrow of light-ashy feathers 

 tipped with white, drawn from above the eye to the sides of the neck, which is also mottled with the same 

 ashy-spotted feathers ; ear-coverts and cheeks blackish, narrowly streaked with white shaft-lines, as also the 

 fore part of the cheeks ; under surface of body blackish brown, the feathers of the throat and breast 

 obsoletely margined with dull ashy, producing a scaly appearance ; chin with distinct white shaft-lines ; 

 centre of breast ashy, the lateral feathers blackish, tipped with ashy ; flank-feathers and vent blackish, 

 tipped with fulvous brown ; under tail-coverts entirely fulvous brown ; under wing-coverts light fulvous 

 brown, edged with blackish, the outer ones more ashy; quills brown below, ashy fulvous along the edge of 

 the inner web. Total length 6*3 inches, culmen 1*0, wing 27, tail 26, tarsus ]-05." 



The Plate represent a male bird in two positions ; and the figures are drawn from a fine specimen obtained 

 in Native Sikhim by Mr. Mandelli and lent to me by Colonel Godwin-Austen, in whose collection it now is. 

 The figures are of about the natural size. 



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