BIRDS—LIOTRICHIDAE—SALPINCTES OBSOLETUS. 
357 
same shade ; the tail rather lighter ; the latter nearly similar on both sides, the bars showing 
with equal distinctness. The dark spots on the feathers are just anterior to the light ones ; 
sometimes they follow as well as precede the white ones. The reddish outer surface of the 
wings is about the shade of the middle of the hack. There are no transverse dusky bars across 
the quills, the outer webs only showing an alternation of dusky and reddish spots. 
The wing is rather short; the first and second quills are graduated, the latter about equal to 
the secondaries; the third is but little shorter than the fourth, fifth, sixth, all nearly equal. 
The tail feathers are very broad (half an inch,) the tail plane, and moderately graduated (on the 
sides only;) the lateral feathers about .20 of an inch less than the longest. 
Different specimens vary a little in the width of the black bars of the tail feathers ; those on 
the inner feathers are usually narrower than on the outer, where they are about .05 of an inch 
broad. 
A specimen, 3968, probably a female, is smaller, with the bill appreciably shorter. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
Sex. 
Locality. 
When 
Whence obtained. 
Orig. 
Collected by— 
Length. 
Stretch 
Wing. 
Remarks. 
No. 
collected. 
No. 
of wings. 
3968 
Patos,Coahuila,Mex. 
Lieut. Couch.... 
236 
5.75 
7.62 
2.37 
Eyes dark brown; 
and white. 
bill slate 
3969 
s 
175 
6.50 
7.75 
2.50 
Eyes dark brown 
feet dark copper 
bill and 
Camp 112,on BillWil- 
liams’Fork, N. M.. 
Feb.—, 1854 
Lieut. Whipple... 
Kenn &. Moll. 
7116 
66 
J. Xant de Vesey. 
SALPINCTES, Cab an is. 
Salpinctes, Cabanis, Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1847, i, 323. 
Ch. —Bill as long as the head ; all the outlines nearly straight to the tip, then decurved ; nostrils oval. Feet weak ; tarsi 
decidedly longer than the middle toe ; outer lateral toe much longer, reaching to the base of the middle claw, and equal to the 
hinder. Wings about one-fifth longer than the tail; the exposed portion of the first primary about half that of the second, and 
two-fifths that of the fourth and fifth. Tail feathers very broad, plane, nearly even or slightly rounded ; the lateral moderately 
graduated. 
Of this genus but one species is hitherto known in the United States, the rock wren of the 
earlier ornithologists. 
SALPINCTES OBSOLETUS, Cab. 
Rock Wren. 
Troglodytes obsoletus, Say, in Long’s Exped. II, 1823, 4. S. Fork of Platte.— Nuttall, Man. I, 1832, 435 .—Aud. 
Synopsis, 1839, 73.— Ib. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 443 ; pi. 360.— Ib. Birds Am. II, 1841, 113 ; pi. 
116.— Newberry, Zool. P. R. R. Rep. VI, iv, 1857, 80. 
Myotlura obsoleta, Bonap. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 6 ; pi. i, f. 2. 
Thryothorus obsoletus, Bonap. List, 1838.— Ib. Rev. Zool. II, 1839, 98. , 
Salpinctes obsoletus, Cabanis, Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1847, i, 323, (type obsoletus .)— Bonap. Consp. 1850, 224. 
? “ Thryothorus latifasciatus, Liciit. Preis Verzeichniss.”— Bonap. 
Sp. Ch.— Plumage very soft and lax. Bill about as long as the head. Upper parts brownish gray, each feather with a 
central line and (except on the head) transverse bars of dusky, and a small dull brownish white spot at the end, (seen also on 
the tips of the secondaries.) Rump, sides of the body, and posterior part of belly and under tail coverts dull cinnamon, darker 
above. Rest of under parts dirty white ; feathers of throat and breast with dusky central streaks. Lower tail coverts banded 
