The Cactus Wren 
throat, lower throat, and chest heavily spotted with black,—the spots nearly or quite 
confluent in high plumage; at other times, perhaps in less mature specimens, V-shaped 
or various; breast, sides of belly, sides, and crissum sharply and rather finely spotted 
with black—the spots rounded, rhomboidal, elongate, or various. Maxilla dusky 
horn-color; mandible and feet light horn; irides red. Young birds are more sparingly 
spotted below, especially on chest. Length about 203.2 (8.00); average of 29 males: 
wing 86.7 (3.41); tail 80.7 (3.18); bill 23.3 (.92); tarsus 28.3 (1.11). Females average 
somewhat smaller. 
Recognition Marks. —Towhee size—largest of American wrens; highly varied 
(white-striped) upperparts and heavily black-spotted underparts, unmistakable. 
Nesting.^ Nest: A cylindrical mass of dried grasses, heavily lined with feathers; 
placed horizontally, with entrance at one end, and well-shaded above; in top of cholla 
cactus, yucca, or at base of sahuaro branch, or. more rarely, in mesquite, or other 
desert shrub. Cylinder about a foot long and 6 inches thick; entrance not large enough 
to admit hand without forcing. Eggs: 4 or 5, rarely 6 (7 of record); pale pinkish 
cinnamon to pinkish cinnamon, finely, heavily, and uniformly sprinkled or spotted with 
deeper cinnamon—sometimes faintly wreathed or capped. A rare type shows a white 
ground upon which the pigment is sharply outlined in largish spots. Av. of 203 eggs 
in the M. C. O. colls: 23.5 x 17 (.925 x .67). Index 72.4. Range 19.6-26.4 by 15-18 
(.77-1.04 by .59-.71). Season: March, April-June two broods. 
Range of Heleodytes brunneicapillus .—Southwestern United States, Mexico, and 
Lower California. 
Range of El. b. couesi. —Lower Sonoran deserts of southern California, southern 
Nevada, and Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas, with northern Lower 
California and the northern states of Mexico. 
Distribution in California. —Common resident of the Lower Sonoran portions 
of the southeastern deserts, north to southern end of Owens Valley; also locally resident 
in the San Diego district north to Simi and, formerly, Santa Paula; found by Grinnell 
at Weldon. Local range nearly coincident with that of the Opuntia cacti (especially 
0 . fulgida), and the tree yuccas ( Yucca arborescens (Torr.), and Y. mohavensis Sargent). 
Authorities. — Baird ( Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) , Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., 
vol. ix., 1858, p. 355 (Los Angeles, Fort Yuma, etc.); Heermann , Rep. Pac. R. R. 
Surv., vol. x., pt. i\\, 1859, p. 41 (Mohave Desert; habits; desc., nest); Swarth, Condor, 
vol. vi., 1904, p. 17 (distr.; crit.); Beal, U. S. Dept. Agric., Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 30, 
1907, p. 64, pi. (food); Woods, Condor, vol. xxiii., 1921, p. 47, figs, (nesting in s. Calif.; 
photos); Grinnell , Condor, vol. xxiii., 1921, p. 169 (crit.; EL b. bryanti not found in Calif.). 
BRUNNEICAPILLUS is the northern outpost of a vigorous genus 
which in Mexico and South America boasts twenty-seven species. Of 
these the South American members are known as Marsh Wrens, but 
the Middle American branch of the genus affects the driest situations, 
and their northern range is almost exactly delimited by the occurrence 
of the larger species of Opuntia cactus and the tree yuccas ( Yucca arbor¬ 
escens and Y. mohavensis). 
Fully conscious of his larger size and of the envy which it may 
incite, our giant wren is the most wary and secretive of the Troglodytine 
race. We are welcome to study his architecture, since there is no help 
for it, but his person is sacred from all eyes. 
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