OVEN-BIRDS. 479 



but the characteristic red ornaments of the latter are entirely absent. A peculiar 

 style of coloration pervades the \vhole family, however, all the species being of some 

 shade of brown, usually with the secondaries, rump, and tail rufous, while the breast, 

 and often the head and the back, are a.'.orned with whitish drop-spots or shaft-streaks. 

 Indeed, so uniform is the aspect of all the members of the family, that we see no rea- 

 son for specially mentioning any particular species, inasmuch as the habits, which, 

 however, are very little known, seem to be equally uniform. Their movements on the 

 trees are said to be just like those of the woodpeckers. The species of woodhewers 

 are not very numerous, hardly more than some eighty being known, ranging from 

 Chili and La Plata to Mexico. 



Representatives of the different types of the FURXAKIID.E have been examined as 

 to the structure of the nares, and have been found to be schizorhinal. We are, there- 

 fore, justified in presuming that this condition is a character shared by the other spe- 

 cies, and peculiar to the family. Externally, they differ from the Dendrocolaptidse in 

 having the middle toe longer than the two lateral toes. Otherwise the two families 

 have many features in common. Thus many of the Furnariidae have pointed and 

 somewhat stiffened tail-feathers, representing as they do the creepers and nuthatches 

 amongst the Clamatores. Even in coloration there is a great resemblance to that of 

 the foregoing family. On the whole, the coloration of the Formicaroideae deserves a 

 few remarks. All these birds with a mesomyodian tracheal syrinx are exclusively 

 neotropical. They consequently hail from a part of the world which justly is regarded 

 as the home of some of the gaudiest-colored birds which our globe has produced, 

 humming-birds, tanagers, parrots, toucans, jacamars, trogons, etc. How often has it 

 not been thoughtlessly repeated that, while the tropical forests foster brilliancy of 

 plumage, the temperate climates are the home of the plain and dull-colored species, 

 and that kind nature has given the modestly dressed birds the power of sweet song 

 as a compensation for the lack of beauty. But here is a neotropical super-family of 

 ' songless ' birds, nearly five hundred species of a number of different genera and 

 families, not one of which is adorned with a single bright-colored feather ! All the 

 variation of color is from white to black, through brown and rusty ; and so uniform is 

 their style that not even green, otherwise so common a color among birds, is found on 

 any form which really belongs in this super-family, a proof more of the great natural- 

 ness of the group. 



The remarkable impersonation by mesomyodian birds of well known oscinine types 

 is also very strongly marked in the present family, for in Geositta and its allies 

 we have a complete repetition of the larks, not only in colors, but also partly in habits, 

 since they are entirely terrestrial birds, while some species of Xymillayis are most 

 astonishing counterparts of the tree creepers (Certhiot) in movements, size, form, 

 and color. Peculiar in regard to the form of the bill are the genera Xenops and 

 PygarrichitS) in which the lower mandible is bent upwards and slightly falcate, dis- 

 tantly reminding of the corresponding structure in the parrot-auk ( Cyclorrhynchus) 

 and in some kingfishers. 



A closer characterization of the different species, genera, or even sub-families, of 

 the Furnariidae would only be an uninteresting series of notes respecting comparative 

 dimensions, more or less stiffness and pointedncss of tail-feathers, greater or less 

 amount of gray, or rufous, in the plumage, and may, therefore, be entirely dispensed 

 with. But as the chief interest of this family lies in the remarkable nesting habits, 

 we propose to give a fuller account of this side of their economy. 



