Lieutenant Couch met with these birds near Monterey. He states that they have a rich, powerful song. Of the nest he gives substantially the same description as that furnished by Dr. Heermann.

The eggs are of an oblong-oval shape, slightly more pointed at one end, and are so equally and generally covered, over a white ground, with fine salmon-colored spots, as to present a uniform and almost homogeneous appearance. They vary in length from an inch to 1.02 inches, and have an average breadth of .68 of an inch.

Campylorhynchus affinis, XantusTHE CAPE CACTUS WREN

Campylorhynchus affinis, Xantus, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1859, 298 (Cape St. Lucas).—Baird, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1859, 303; Rev. 100.—Scl. Catal. 1861, 17, No. 108.—Elliot, Illust. B. N. A. I, IV.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 62.

Sp. Char. Cap of head reddish-brown; the concealed centres of feathers dusky. Rest of upper parts grayish-brown, all the feathers of body and scapulars with broad central or shaft streaks of whitish edged with black; the streaks irregular in outline, on some feathers nearly linear, in others widening at intervals along the shaft. Outer webs of the wing-feathers crossed by about seven rows of whitish semicircular spots, with corresponding series of more circular ones on the inner web. Tail-feathers black, all of them with a series of about eight quadrate white spots on each web, which are alternate to each other, not opposite, and extend from or near the black shaft to the edge; the extreme tips of the feathers black; the two central feathers, however, more like the back, with irregular mottling of grayish and black. Upper tail-coverts barred transversely with black.

Under parts white, faintly tinged with rusty posteriorly; each feather spotted with black, excepting on the immaculate chin. These spots are rather larger and more quadrate on the jugulum, where they are sometimes on the sides of the feathers (on one or both sides); posteriorly, however, they are elongated or tear-shaped, and strung along the shaft, one or two on each. On the crissum they are large and much rounded, three or four on each longer feather. Legs rather dusky. Bill lead-color, pale at the base below; iris reddish-brown. A broad white stripe from bill over the eye and nape; edged above and below with black; line behind the eye like the crown; cheek-feathers white, edged with blackish.

Immature specimens exhibit a tendency to a whitish spotting in the ends of the feathers of the cap. A very young bird does not, however, differ materially, except in having the spots less distinct beneath, the white streaks less conspicuous above, the white of the wings soiled with rufous. Specimens vary considerably in the proportional as well as absolute thickness and length of the bill; thus, No. 32,167 measures .80 from nostril to end of bill, instead of .60, as given below for No. 12,965.

12,965. Total length, 7.50; wing, 3.30; tail, 3.40; its graduation, .45; exposed portion of first primary, 1.42, of second, 2.15, of longest, or fourth (measured from exposed base of first primary), 2.45; length of bill from forehead, .90, from nostril, .60; along gape, 1.07; tarsus, 1.02; middle toe and claw, .90; claw alone, .25; hind toe and claw, .76; claw alone, .35.

Hab. Only observed at Cape St. Lucas, Lower California.

This species is most nearly allied to C. brunneicapillus; the most apparent difference at first sight being in the greater concentration of black on the throat and jugulum in brunneicapillus, and the much smaller size of the remaining spots on the under parts, with the decided light-cinnamon of the posterior portion of the body. The outer and central tail-feathers alone are marked as in C. affinis, the intermediate ones being entirely black, with the exception of a white subterminal band.

This is one of the most characteristic birds constituting the isolated fauna of Cape St. Lucas. Like nearly all the species peculiar to this remarkable locality, it is exceedingly abundant, breeding in immense numbers. It has not yet been detected elsewhere, though it may possibly be found on the Lower Colorado.

Habits. This recently described species was first discovered by Mr. Xantus, and has, so far as is known, a somewhat restricted locality, having been met with only at the southern extremity of Lower California, where it is an exceedingly abundant bird. Mr. Xantus has published no observations in regard to its habits, which, however, are probably very nearly identical with those of the more common species. From the brief memoranda given by him in the general register of his collections, made at Cape St. Lucas, we gather that their nests were built almost exclusively in opuntias, cacti, and the prickly pear, and were generally only four or five feet from the ground, but occasionally at the height of ten feet.

The nests are large purse-shaped collections of twigs and coarse grasses, very similar to, and hardly distinguishable in any respect from, those of the more northern species. The eggs vary from 1.05 to 1 inch in length, and from .65 to .70 of an inch in breadth, and have a reddish-white ground very uniformly dotted with fine markings of reddish-brown, purple, and slate.

Subgenus SALPINCTES, Cabanis

Salpinctes, Cabanis, Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1847, I, 323. (Type, Troglodytes obsoletus, Say.)

Gen. Char. 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 so far known in the United States, the Rock Wren of the earlier ornithologists. It is peculiar among its cognate genera by having the two continuous plates on each side the tarsus divided into seven or more smaller plates, with a naked interval between them and the anterior scutellæ. Other characters will be found detailed in the Review of American Birds, p. 109.

Salpinctes obsoletus, CabanROCK WREN

Troglodytes obsoletus, Say, Long’s Exped. II, 1823, 4 (south fork of Platte).—Aud. Orn. Biog. IV, pl. ccclx.—Ib. B. A. II, pl. cxvi.—Newberry, P. R. R. Rep. VI, IV, 1857, 80.—Heermann, P. R. R. Rep. X, 1859, 41. Salpinctes obsoletus, Cab. Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1847, I, 323.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 357; Rev. 110.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1859, 371 (Oaxaca).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 64. ? Troglodytes latisfasciatus, Licht. Preis-Verzeich. 1831, No. 82.

Salpinctes obsoletus.

7157 ♂

Sp. Char. 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 broadly with black. Inner tail-feathers like the back, the others with a broad black bar near the end; the tips cinnamon; the outer on each side alternately banded with this color and black. A dull white line above and behind the eye. Iris brown. Length, 5.70; wing, 2.82; tail, 2.40. Young not marked or banded beneath. Eggs white, spotted with red.

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We are indebted to Professor Theodore N. Gill for the present account of the characteristics of the class of Birds as distinguished from other vertebrates, pages XI-XV.

Dr. Coues, in his “Key to North American Birds,” gives an able and extended article on the general characteristics of birds, and on their internal and external anatomy, to which we refer our readers. A paper by Professor E. S. Morse in the “Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History” (X, 1869), “On the Carpus and Tarsus of Birds,” is of much scientific value.

Carus and Gerstaecker (Handbuch der Zoologie, 1868, 191) present the following definition of birds as a class:—

Aves. Skin covered wholly or in part with feathers. Anterior pair of limbs, converted into wings, generally used in flight; sometimes rudimentary. Occiput with a single condyle. Jaws encased in horny sheaths, which form a bill; lower jaw of several elements and articulated behind with a distinct quadrate bone attached to the skull. Heart with double auricle and double ventricle. Air-spaces connected to a greater or less extent with the lungs; the skeleton more or less pneumatic. Diaphragm incomplete. Pelvis generally open. Reproduction by eggs, fertilized within the body, and hatched externally, either by incubation or by solar heat; the shells calcareous and hard.

Methodi naturalis avium disponendarum tentamen. Stockholm, 1872-73.

This group is insusceptible of definition. The wading birds, as usually allocated, do not possess in common one single character not also to be found in other groups, nor is the collocation of their characters peculiar.

Corresponding closely with the Linnæan and earlier Sundevallian acceptation of the term. Equivalent to the later Oscines of Sundevall.

As remarked by Sundevall, exceptions to the diagnostic pertinence of these two characters of hind claw and wing-coverts taken together are scarcely found. For, in those non-passerine birds, as Raptores and some Herodiones, in which the claw is enlarged, the wing-coverts are otherwise disposed; and similarly when, as in many Pici and elsewhere, the coverts are of a passerine character, the feet are highly diverse.

Laminiplantares of Sundevall plus Alaudidæ.

Scutelliplantares of Sundevall minus Alaudidæ.

Nearly equivalent to the Linnæan Picæ. Equal to the late (1873) Volucres of Sundevall.

A polymorphic group, perfectly distinguished from Passeres by the above characters in which, for the most part, it approximates to one or another of the following lower groups, from which, severally, it is distinguished by the inapplicability of the characters noted beyond. My divisions of Picariæ correspond respectively to the Cypselomorphæ, Coccygomorphæ, and Celeomorphæ of Huxley, from whom many of the characters are borrowed.

Groups G., H., and I. are respectively equal to the Charadriomorphæ, Pelargomorphæ, and Geranomorphæ of Huxley.

In the true conirostral or fringilliform genera the under mandible has high strong tomia, bent at an angle near the base; the corresponding portion of the upper mandible is deep, so that the nostrils are nearer the culmen than the tomia. The whole bill is more or less bent in its axis from the axis of the cranial base, so that the palate curves down, or is excavated or, as it were, is broken into two planes meeting at an angle,—one plane the anterior hard imperforate roof of the mouth, the other the back palate where the internal nares are situate (Sundevall). The single North American genus of Tanagridæ (Pyranga) is here conventionally ranged on account of its high nostrils and conic bill, although it does not show angulation of the tomia. The Icteridæ, with obviously angulated tomia, shade into the Fringillidæ in shortness and thickness of bill, and into other families in its length and slenderness.

These two genera, Psilorhinus and Gymnokitta, of the family Corvidæ, have naked nostrils, as under dd, but otherwise show the characters of Corvidæ.

With the Paridæ the authors of this work include the Nuthatches as a subfamily Sittinæ, which I prefer to dissociate and place as a group of equal grade next to Certhiidæ.

In the genus Ampelis and part of the Vireonidæ it is so extremely short as to appear absent, and is displaced, lying concealed outside the second (apparently first) primary, like one of the primary coverts; however, it may always be detected on close examination, differing from the coverts with which it is associated in some points of size and shape, if not also of color.

In Ampelis there is tendency to subdivision of the lateral plates; in Myiadestes the anterior scutella are obsolete.

Excepting Picoides, in which the true hind toe (hallux) is wanting; the outer or fourth toe being, however, reversed as usual, and taking the place of the hind toe.

Excepting Sphyrapicus, in which the tongue is not more protrusible than in ordinary birds.

Our species falls rather in a restricted family Aridæ, as distinguished from Psittacidæ proper.

In a perfectly fresh specimen of Turdus mustelinus, the basal half of the first phalanx of the inner toe is connected with the first joint of the middle toe by a membrane which stretches across to within two fifths of the end of the latter; there appears, however, to be no ligamentous adhesion. The basal joint of the outer toe is entirely adherent, and a membrane extends from nearly the basal half of the second joint to the distal end of the first joint of the middle toe. When this connecting membrane becomes dried the division of the toes appears considerably greater.

When the toes are all extended in line with the tarsus, the hind claw stretches a little beyond the lateral and scarcely reaches the base of the middle claw.

The plates at the upper surface of the basal joints of the toes are quadrangular and opposite each other.

See Baird, Review American Birds, I, 1864, 7, 8.

Harporhynchus ocellatus, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 18, pl. iii.

C. ardesiacus, Salvin, Ibis, N. S. III, 121, pl. ii.

C. pallasi, Temm. Man. d’Orn. I, p. 177.—Salvin, Ibis, III, 1867, 119. (Sturnus cinclus, var. Pallas, Zoögr. R.-As. I, 426.)

S. azurea, Baird, Rev. Am. Birds, 1864, 62. (S. azurea, Swainson.)

Parus meridionalis, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1856, 293.—Baird, Rev. 81.

Parus sibiricus, Gmel. S. N. 1788, p. 1013.

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