DENDROCOPUS.—DENDROBATES. 437 
the tierra caliente bordering the Pacific coast from Sonora to Tehuantepec. It seems 
to thrive better in the Marias than elsewhere, for there it is very numerous and may 
be seen, or its gentle tappings heard, in the quiet woods at all hours of the day, busy 
drilling into the dried branches and logs in search of borers or white ants, upon which 
it becomes very fat. I founda nest (in the month of April) of a pair of these little 
Woodpeckers upon the island near the sea-shore, bored into the green flower-stem of a 
large maguey plant. The entrance of the nest was beautifully rounded, and about 
twelve feet from the ground. This small, slender, smooth stem, not more than four 
inches in diameter, with its soft spongy wood, afforded a convenient material to work 
out the nest, as well as a sure protection against the raccoon or other intruders, the 
long spear-shaped leaves, armed with spines at the root, preventing the possibility of a 
near approach to it from the ground without some labour of cutting them away. Both 
birds evinced a great deal of uneasiness at my presence. As I had no instrument, 
however, to cut away the dagger-shaped leaves of the maguey, I left the birds with 
their well-fortified domicile.” 
Dr. Gaumer ” says that this Woodpecker occurs in all parts of Yucatan, though it 
is not at all common, and is met with both in the towns and ranchos. The iris in life 
is reddish brown. In the island of Cozumel Mr. Devis says }° it is rarer than the other 
- Woodpeckers, but found with them in the uncleared woods. 
a". Cauda quam remex secundus brevior. 
DENDROBATES. 
Dendrobates, Swainson, Faun. Bor.-Am., Birds, p. 301 (1831) ; Hargitt, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xviii. 
p. 337. 
Mr. Hargitt recognizes twenty-five species belonging to this genus, which is a purely 
Neotropical one. Only four of these occur within our limits, and of these three are 
exceedingly closely allied to one another and to D. fumigatus of the Southern 
Continent; the fourth, D. ceciliew, only just enters our fauna in the State of Panama. 
The culmen is a sharp ridge, the bill on either side being scooped into a smooth 
channel, which is bounded along the lower edge by the ridge above the nostrils; the 
groove beneath this is well defined and deep. ‘The tarsus is usually slightly longer 
than the outer toe (reversed), which again is longer than the middle toe. 
a. Subtus fere unicolor ; dorsum posticum et tectrices supracaudales concolores. 
1. Dendrobates oleagineus. 
Picus oleagineus, Licht. Preis-Verz. mex. Vog. p. 1 (cf. J. f. Orn. 1868, p. 55) °. 
Chloronerpes (Phaionerpes) oleagineus, Reich. Scansores, p. 356, t. delxxv. figg. 4467-8”. 
Chloronerpes oleagineus, Scl. P. Z. 8S. 1856, p. 307°; 1859, pp. 367 *, 388°; Sumichrast, La Nat. vy. 
p. 240°; Ferrari-Perez, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. ix. p. 159’. 
