BIRDS LIOTRICHIDAE — THEIOTHOEUS BEWICKII. 
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THRIOTHORUS BEWICKII, Bonap. 
Bewick's Wren. 
Troglodytes bewiclcii, Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 96 : V, 1838, 467 ; pi. 18.— Ib. Syn. 1839, 74.— Ib. Birds Amer. II, 
1841, 120; pi. 118.— Nutt. Man. I, 1832, 434.— Lesson, Rev. Zool. 1840, 264.— Newberry, 
Zool. P. R. R. Surv. VI, iv, 1857, 80. 
Thryothorus bewickii, Bonap. List, 1838.— Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 221. 
Telmatodytes bewickii, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851, 78. (Not type.) 
Troglodytes leucogastra, Gould, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1836, 89. (From Tamaulipas, Mex.) 
Thryothorus leucogastra, Bon. Consp. 1850, 222.— Ib. Comptes Rendus, XXVIII, 1854, 57 ; Notes Orn. Delattre, 43. 
Troglodytes spilurus, Vigors, Zool. Beechey's Voyage, 1839, 18 ; pi. iv. f. 1. (California.) 
Sp. Ch. — Bill shorter than the head. Tail longer than the wings; much graduated. Upper parts rufous brown ; beneath 
plumbeous white. A white streak over the eye, the feathers edged above with brown. Exposed surface of the wings and the 
innermost tail feathers closely barred with dusky ; the remaining tail feathers mostly black, barred or blotched with white at 
the tips, and on the whole outer web of the exterior feather, and on the under tail coverts. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.25; 
tail, 2.50. (2047.) 
Var. spilurus, with longer bill ; purer white beneath. Colors more grayish olivaceous above. 
Hab.— North America from Atlantic to Pacific ; south to Mexico. 
This species is very strongly marked among all the North American wrens hy the very long 
"black tail, varied only on the exterior with whitish. The rump is very little brighter than the 
rest of the back. The upper and under tail coverts are conspicuously barred. When the tail 
is closed its entire upper surface appears rather grayer than the back, and uniformly barred 
from base to tip ; the concealed portion, however, is found to be nearly uniformly black, the 
white only visible on the exterior when viewed from below. The sides of the body are 
tinged with brown, but no bars are visible ; perhaps an occasional dusky streak, 
The color of the under parts varies considerably. In one (2532) it is of a sooty brown, 
scarcely lighter along the median line ; the colors above, too, are unusually dark. Generally, 
however, it is of a dull soiled plumbeous white, darker, perhaps, across the breast. The female 
is smaller than the male, but otherwise not different. The young is obscurely blotched beneath 
with dusky. 
The tail is so long that the outstretched hind feet do not reach to the end of it. The wings 
do not quite reach over the posterior third of the tail, nor to the ends of the coverts. The 
outer feathers are about .65 of an inch shorter than the middle ones. 
All the western specimens with which I have compared series from Pennsylvania agree in 
having a longer and more gently curved bill, the tail feathers apparently broader, and in being 
less rufous and more olivaceous above ; the bars on the wings more obsolete. The under parts 
are of rather a purer white. I am not prepared to say that these differences are constant or of 
specific value ; if this should be established, Vigors' name of spilurus would be very appro- 
priate. The skins from the Rio Grande are paler and grayer above ; the belly is still purer 
white. It is this plumage which Gould has described as Troglodytes leucogastra in Pr. Zool. 
Soc. 1836, 89. His specimen from Tamaulipas agrees perfectly with others in the Smithsonian 
Museum from the same locality. 
