ANORTHURA FORMOSA.
Spotted Wren.
Troglodytes punctatus, Blyth (nec Boie), Joum. As. Soc. Beng. xiv. p. 589 (1845)—Id. Cat. Birds Mus. As. Soc.
p. 158 (1849).—Bp. Consp. Gen. Ay. i. p. 222 (1850).—Jerd. Birds of India, i. p. 492 (1862).—Gray,
Hand-1. Birds, i. p. 188, no. 2565 (1869) Hume, Stray Feathers, 1874, p. 525, 1877, p. 238, 1879,
p. 93.
Troglodytes formosus, Walden, Ibis, 1874, p. 91.—Ramsay, Orn. Mem. Tweed, p. 253 (1881).
Anorthura formosa, Sharpe, Brit. Mus. Cat. of Birds, vi. p. 279 (1881).
T h is would appear to be an extremely rare species; for D r. Jerdon in his ‘ Birds o f India ’ states that he had
only procured one specimen at Daijiling, so that up to the year 1862 this appears to have been the only one
obtained since Mr. Blyth’s typical example. Mr. Hume’s collection doubtless contains examples; but as far
as this country is concerned, I believe that only a single individual is known; and that one is in the
collection o f the late Marquis of Tweeddale.
Some little controversy has arisen as to the name which this species should bear. It would seem that
before Mr. Blyth described the species the name punctatus had already been bestowed by Boie; but this
title has always been considered a synonym of Anorthura troglodytes; the Common Wren of Europe. Under
these circumstances the late Lord Tweeddale proposed the name of Troglodytes formosus for the Darjiling
species ; and to this Mr. Hume has taken exception. He writes:— “ In this I am quite unable to concur;
and as it involves, to my notion, a fundamental error in principle, I feel bound to protest against it. Had
Brehm’s name stood for the species to which it was applied, the proposed chauge would be co rrect; but, as
a fact, the name does not stand, it has become a mere synonym, is dead for our purposes, and therefore
the adjective punctatus is again available to characterize some other species of the genus. Blyth did thus
utilize it, and his name punctatus should, in my opinion; most assuredly stand.” I am sorry I cannot
follow Mr. Hume in his conclusions, backed up as they are by his argument in ‘ Stray Feathers ’ for 1877,
p. 2 3 8 ; for I think that if a name has been given to any species before, it is better not to employ it again
under any circumstances; and I have therefore adopted Lord Walden’s correction.
The present species stands quite alone in its coloration, and is much more like a true Timeliine bird
than a Wren. The following description is copied from Mr. Sharpe’s ‘ Catalogue o f B irds:’—
Adult. General colour above smoky brown, inclining to dull rufous-brown on the lower back and rump,
and verging to more decided rufous on the upper tail-coverts; on all the upper parts there are tiny rounded
subterminal spots of whitish or pale fulvous, margined with dusky blackish, these spots being absent only on
the crown of the h e ad ; wing-coverts dusky brown, with rather larger spots of huffy whitish ; the greater
coverts rufous, mottled on the outer web and having a buffy-white spot a t the t ip ; quills blackish, externally
rufous, with five broad bands of black, the inner secondaries more narrowly barred and having a few
terminal spots o f white; tail rufous, barred with blackish, about nine narrow bars being perceptible on the
centre feathers ; lores and sides of face smoky brown, mottled with fulvous spots, indistinct on the lores but
plainer on the cheeks; the ear-coverts streaked narrowly with fulvous; throat light sandy buff, deepening
in colour on the breast and abdomen; the whole under surface mottled with triangular whitish spots, which
are brought into relief by dusky central spots, all the feathers bordered by a thiu dusky line and freckled
with minute dots of dusky blackish ; the flanks rather browner than the abdomen; under wing-coverts and
axillaries reddish brown, slightly mottled with dusky b a rs ; quills dusky brown below, ashy along the margin of
the inner web, and showing some fulvous bars towards the ends ; “ bill horny brown ; legs pale brown ; iris
brown” (Jerdon). Total len g th 4 -6 inches, culmen 0*6, wing 1'75, tail 1‘25, tarsus 0-7.
I am indebted to Captain Wardlaw Ramsay for the loan o f the specimen in the Tweeddale collection, from
which Mr. Sharpe’s description was also taken. The figures in the P late are drawn from this specimen, and
represent the species of the natural size.
[R. B. S.]