GEN. CHAR. Bill stout, compressed, as long as, or longer than the head, without notch or rictal bristles; culmen and commissure curved; gonys nearly straight. Nostrils in the antero-inferior part of nasal groove, in advance of the frontal feathers, with an overhanging scale with thickened edge, as in _Thryothorus_; sometimes, as in the type, reduced to a slight ridge along the upper side of the nasal groove. Lateral septum not projecting below or anteriorly into the nasal cavity, but concealed by the nasal scale. Tarsus a little longer than middle toe and claw; claws strong, much curved, and very sharp; middle toe with basal joint adherent almost throughout. Wings and tail about equal, the latter graduated; the exterior webs of lateral feathers broad. This genus embraces the largest species of the family, and is well represented in Middle and South America, two species only reaching into North America, which may be distinguished as follows:— Top of head and post-ocular stripe reddish-brown; back streaked longitudinally and linearly with white. All the feathers beneath conspicuously spotted. Crissum and flanks with rounded or elongated spots. Iris reddish. Nostrils inferior, linear, overhung by a scale. Nests large and purse-shaped; eggs white, profusely marked with salmon-colored or reddish spots. _a._ Spots much larger on throat and jugulum than elsewhere. Inner webs of second to fifth tail-feathers (between middle and outer feathers) black, except at tips. Length, 8.00; wing, 3.40; tail, 3.55. _Hab._ Adjacent borders of United States and Mexico … _brunneicapillus._ _b._ Spots on throat and jugulum little larger than elsewhere. Inner webs of intermediate tail-feathers banded with white like the outer. Length, 7.50. _Hab._ Cape St. Lucas … _affinis._ Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus, GRAY. CACTUS WREN. _Picolaptes brunneicapillus_, LAFRESNAYE, Mag. de Zool. 1835, 61, pl. xlvii.—LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. V, 1851, 114.—CASSIN, Birds Cal. Tex. 1854, 156, pl. xxv.—HEERMANN, J. A. N. Sc. II, 1853, 263. _C. brunneicapillus_, GRAY, Genera, I, 1847, 159.—BP. Consp. 1850, 223.—SCL. P. A. N. S. 156, 264.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 355; Pr. Phil. Acad. 1859, 3, etc.; Rev. 99.—HEERMANN, P. R. R. X, 1859.—DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 482 (Texas).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 61. SP. CHAR. Bill as long as the head. Above brown; darkest on the head, which is unspotted. Feathers on the back streaked centrally with white. Beneath whitish, tinged with rusty on the belly; the feathers of the throat and upper parts, and under tail-coverts, with large rounded black spots; those of the remaining under parts with smaller, more linear ones. Chin and line over the eye white. Tail-feathers black beneath, barred subterminally (the outer one throughout) with white. Iris, reddish-yellow. Length, 8 inches; wing, 3.40; tail, 3.55.