C.EREBID.K — THE CREEPERS. 



425 



Family C^REBID^ 



The Preepf.rs. 



As already stated on Jiage 177, there is little to distinguish the Carihida; 

 from the Sylvicolidoi, except by the longer and more protracted tongue, and 

 liy the narrower gape in some of the forms. Tlie genera Ccrthiola, Cccreba, 

 Diglossa, etc., have peculiarities by which they are easily recognized ; but 

 when we come to such members as Dacnis, CoJiirodrtim, etc., it becomes 

 \-ery difficult to separate them from the slender-l>illi'd Tauagers, the Wood 

 Warl)lers, and the llcirninfhophaf/as. 



Although the family is one widely distributed, in numerous genera, over 

 Middle and South America, Imt one, Gerihiol«, belongs to Xorth America, 

 tliis being represented by a sjiecies, or rather a race, abundant in tlie Baha- 

 mas, and occasionally met with in the Florida Keys. We shall therefore 

 give only the diagnosis of this family. 



Genus CERTHIOLA, .Sun-dev.\ll. 



Certhiola, Sundev.vll, Vet. Akail. Haiull. .Stockholm, 1835, 99. (Type, Ccrthia flaveola, 

 Lix.\.) 



Gen. Chau. Bill nearly as long as the head ; as high .as Iirnad at base, elongated, conical, 

 very acute, and gently decurved from l:iase to tip. 

 Culmen uniformly convex ; gonys concave. No 

 bristles at biu^e of bill. Tail rounded, rather shorter 

 than the wings. Tarsi longer than the middle toe. 

 Iris brown ? Nest pensile and arched. Eggs with 

 yellowish ground dotted thickly with rufous spot?. ¥/^ _ y^^^ '^^ ^;:^'^ 



Tliis genus is one of those especially char- 

 acterizing the West Indies, almost every 

 island as far as known having its peculiar 

 species, differing, it is true, in very sliglit 

 characters, but always constant to the normal type. Cuba alone has so far 

 furnished no representative of this genus, its place being supplied ap- 

 parently by Cccreha cyanea. The specimens from St. Thomas I cannot 

 distinguish from those of Porto Eico, but this is, so far as the series before 

 me indicates, the only case where one species occurs on two islands. All 

 the West Indian species, nine or ten in number, agree in having the whole 

 upper part nearly uniformly dusky or blackish ; the head and back lieing 

 concolored, while of the three or four South American all but one (C 

 lafrnhi) have the back more oli\aceous, the liead much darker. Again, 

 tlie West Indian species, with a single e.xception (C. hananirora), have both 

 webs of lateral tail-feathers broadly and aljout e(j^ually tipjied with white ; 

 while in all the South American this white is more restricted on the inner 

 .54 



Ci-rthiola Jlaveola, Suud. 



