Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, volume 1.djvu/430

 longer than the middle toe, compressed, anteriorly scutate, posteriorly edged; toes, scutellate above, inferiorly granulate; second and fourth nearly equal, the hind toe almost as long as the middle one, third and fourth united as far as the second joint; claws long, slender, acute, arcuate, much compressed.

Plumage soft, lax, and tufty. Wings short, very convex, broad and rounded, the first quill very short, the fourth longest. Tail rather long, curved downwards, much rounded, of twelve narrowish, rounded feathers.

Bill wood-brown above, bluish beneath. Iris hazel. Legs flesh-colour. The general colour of the upper part is brownish-red. A yellowish-white streak over the eye, extending far down the neck, and edged above with dark brown. Quills, coverts and tail barred with blackish-brown; secondary and middle coverts tipped with white; shafts of the scapulars white. Throat greyish-white, under parts reddish-buff, paler behind. Under tail-coverts white, barred with blackish.

Length $5 1/2$ inches, extent of wings $7 1/2$; bill along the ridge $3/4$, along the gap $11/12$; tarsus $5/6$.

Adult Female. Plate LXXVIII. Fig. 2.

The female differs from the male in being lighter above, tinged with grey beneath, and in wanting the white tips of the wing-coverts.

This species and the Marsh Wren form the transition from Troglodytes to Certhia, resembling the former in habits and colouring, and the latter in the form of the bill, as well as partly in habits.


 * , Willd. Sp. Pl. vol. ii. p. 286. Pursh, Fl. Amer. vol. ii. p. 254.—, Linn., Juss.

Leaves quinate, smooth, unequally serrated; racemes lax; generally with ternate flowers; corollas tetrapetalous, their connivent claws of the length of the calyx; stamens seven, shorter than the corolla. The flowers are scarlet.