The Rock Wren 
obey, but now and then one less sophisticated allows a little pleasant 
talk, “blarney,” to quiet his beating heart. Then a little titillation 
of the crown feathers will quite win him over, so that he will accept 
a gently insistent finger in place of the twig which has been his support. 
The unfaltering trust of childhood has subdued many a savage heart, 
but when it is exemplified in a baby Wren, one feels the ultimate appeal 
to tenderness. 
No. 137 
Rock Wren 
A. 0 . U. No. 715. Salpinctes obsoletus (Say). 
Description. — Adults: Above soft grayish vinaceous brown (between benzo 
brown and drab), changing on rump to orange-cinnamon or fawn-color, most of the 
surface speckled by fine, dusky, arrow-shaped marks, containing, or contiguous to, 
rounded spots of pinkish buff} - ; wing-quills color of back, faintly barred with pinkish 
buff on outer webs; tail rounded or fan-shaped; middle pair of tail-feathers color of 
back, barred with dusky; remaining rectrices barred with dusky on outer webs only, 
each with broad subterminal bar of blackish, and tipped broadly with cinnamon-buff 
area, varied by dusky marbling; outermost pair broadly blackish-and-cinnamon-barred 
on both webs; a superciliary stripe of whitish or pinkish buff; a broad post-ocular stripe 
of grayish brown; sides of head and underparts dull pinkish white, shading into pale 
cinnamon or vinaceous buff on flanks and under tail-coverts; sides of head, throat, 
and upper breast spotted, mottled, or streaked obscurely with grayish brown or dusky; 
under tail-coverts barred or transversely spotted with black. Bill dark horn-color 
above, paling below; feet and legs brownish dusky; iris brown. Young birds are more 
or less barred or vermiculated above, with increase of vinaceous, without white speck¬ 
ling; and are unmarked below. Length 139.7-152.4 (5.50-6.00); wing 70 (2.76); tail 
53 (2.09); bill 17.7 (.70); tarsus 21 (.83). 
Remarks. —An alleged subspecies, 5 . 0. pulverius , was described by Mr. Joseph 
Grinnell (Auk, vol. xv., July, 1898, p. 238) from San Nicolas Island in the following 
language: “Pattern of coloration similar to that of the mainland 5 . obsoletus, but 
entire plumage, especially the upper parts, suffused with ochraceous or dust color, 
almost identical with the tint of the soil on San Nicolas Island.” The describer also 
claimed distinction for this proposed form on the ground of “notably greater size of the 
bill and feet.” A later reviewer, Mr. H. S. Swarth (Condor, vol. xvi., Sept., 1914. pp. 
211-217), decided that'the peculiar color of the San Nicolas specimen of Salpinctes was 
due to contact with the soil, just as the reddish color of certain specimens of 5 . guada- 
loupensis was due to contact with reddish soil. In concluding his comparison of 
specimens of S. 0. obsoletus and S. 0. pulverius, Swarth says: “I am unable to dis¬ 
tinguish the slightest significant difference in color or pattern,” although he concedes a 
slightly larger bill to the San Nicolas birds, an excess of 1.3 millimeters, or 7 percent in 
the case of males and .2 of a millimeter, or 1 percent in the case of females. Such 
average differences might occur between two handfuls of bird-skins seized at random 
from any collection tray. And in this very case, the individual variation in the ten 
examples (males) of 5 . 0. obsoletus amounts to 2 millimeters, or 11 percent of the smaller. 
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