“The white iris of this bird, when in its native haunts, is quite readily observed, and with its manners and the localities which it frequents, reminded me, in some measure, of the white-eyed Vireo, (V. noveboracensis.) Its skin is unusually strong for such a small bird, and it has a remarkable development of the muscles of the thighs, and, in fact, unusual strength and firmness of the muscular system generally.”
DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.
Genus Chamæa. Gambel in Proceedings Acad. Philada. III. p. 154, Feb., 1847.
Bill short, slightly curved, rather acute, both mandibles entire, ridge of the upper curving nearly from the base, depression for the nostrils large, oval and exposed, nostrils opening beneath a membrane in the depression. Wings very short, rounded; tail long, and graduated; tarsi long, and rather slender.
One species only known.
Chamæa fasciata. (Gambel.) Parus fasciatus. Gambel, Proc. Acad. Philada., II. p. 265. August, 1845.
Form. Body rather short and robust; wings short and rounded, with the sixth and seventh primaries longest, and nearly equal; tail long and graduated, external feathers about an inch and a half shorter than those in the middle of the tail. Entire plumage of the body composed of long, silky, puff-like feathers.
Dimensions of a skin from California. Total length from tip of bill to end of tail, about 5½ inches; wing, 2½; tail, 3½ inches.
Colours. Male. Head very dark cinerous, lighter on the cheeks and sides of the neck; back, rump, external margins of the quills and tail feathers olive brown. Wings and tail dusky brown; the latter with many crimp-like transverse lines of darker, more distinct in some specimens than others; quills also with similar lines on their inner webs, but frequently very obscure.
Beneath, from the base of the mandible to the abdomen, pale reddish, running into olive on the flanks, and with many of the feathers on the throat and breast having longitudinal stripes of light cinereous olive; under tail coverts brown.