370 
U. S. P. E. E. EXP. AND SURVEYS—ZOOLOGY—GENEEAL EEPOET. 
The preceding pages include all the wrens assigned by more recent writers to the United 
States, with the exception of T. maculosa , Nutt all, described from a specimen seen in a thicket 
in Oregon. There is no known species to which this can be is assigned, unless the description 
is erroneous, as might readily be the case under the circumstances of observation. 1 
Sub-Family CHAMAEANAE. 
CHAMAEA, Gambel. 
Chamaea, Gambel, Pr. A. N. Sc. Ill, 1847, 154. (Type Parus fasciatus .) 
Ch. —Bill shorter than the head, much compressed. Rictus with long bristles. Tarsus much longer than the toes ; without 
well marked scales. Lateral toes equal. Wings short, much rounded ; two-thirds the length of the tail, which is much graduated ; 
the lateral feathers two-thirds the longest. Plumage very soft and lax. 
In this genus the bill is short and much compressed from the middle, broader than high at 
the base. The culmen is straight half way, then considerably curved ; tbe gonys nearly 
straight, but ascending. The bill is not notched ; nor are the nostrils concealed by incumbent 
bristles, though a few of these, of large size, with lateral setae, are directed forward. The 
nostrils are elongated and narrow, though short and overhung by a scale. The bristles at the 
base of the bill are quite long and conspicuous, measuring a quarter of an inch. The tarsi are 
very long, and exhibit no divisions of scutellae (except obsoletely) on the inner side. The 
claws are moderate : the hinder as long as the rest of the toe. The wings are short and much 
rounded; the first five primaries much graduated; the third scarcely longer than the primaries. 
The tail feathers are very long and subtruncate. 
I am not sure that I have correctly indicated the place of Chamaea , though there is no other 
family to which it could so readily be referred. The strongly bristled rictus separates it widely 
from the wrens, as does also the broad depressed character of the base of the bill. The bristly 
character of the frontal feathers is quite peculiar in the group. It has been placed among the 
titmice, but is easily distinguished from them by the free character of most of the basal joints 
of the middle toe, the absence of a sheath of bristly feathers around the base of the bill, &c. 
It is, however, very similar, and probably connects the two families. 
Comparative measurements. 
Catal. 
No. 
Species. 
Locality. 
Sex. 
Length. 
Stretch 
of wings. 
Wing. 
Tail. 
Tarsus. 
Middle 
toe. 
Its claw 
alone. 
Bill 
above. 
Along 
gape. 
Specimen mea¬ 
sured. 
7163 
5924 
Chamaea fasciata.... 
Sacramento valley . 
8 
5.90 
6.20 
2.20 
2.34 
3.40 
3.42 
0.92 
1.02 
0.70 
0.76 
0.18 
0.22 
0.42 
0.46 
0.52 
0.54 
CHAMAEA FASCIATA, Gambel. 
Parus fasciatus, Gambel, Pr. A.‘N. S. II, Aug. 1845, 2G5. 
Chamaea fasciata, Gambel, Pr. A. N. S. Ill, Feb. 1847, 154. (Type of genus.) —Ib. J. A. N. S. 2d Series, I, 1847, 
34; pi. viii, f. 3.— Cabanis, Wiegmann’s Arcliiv, 1848, i, 102.—Bp. Consp. 1850,206.— Cassin, 
Ill. I, n, 1853, 39 ; pi. vii. 
Sp. Ch. —Wings scarcely two-tliirds the length of the tail ; both very much graduated. Upper and outer parts generally 
(including the whole tail) olivaceous brown, tinged with gray on the head ; beneath pale brownish cinnamon, with obsolete 
1 Troglodytes maculosa, Nuttall, Man. I, 2d ed. 1840, 492.—Above cinereous gray side of the throat and breast with whitish 
spots. Mouth of the Columbia and near Santa Barbara. 
