278 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Small DendrocolaptidfE (length about 140-160 mm.) with small 

 slender bill, long, graduated tail with acuminate tips of very rigid 

 rectrices strongly decurved, and inner webs of remiges crossed l)y a 

 broad band of buff or ochraceous. 



Bill much shorter than head, nearly subulate, rather broad and 

 depressed basally, its width at latero-frontal antia? much greater than 

 its depth at same point and equal to half the distance from nostril 

 to tip of maxilla or a little less; culmen distinctly ridged, gently 

 decurved from near base; maxillary tomium nearly straight for most 

 of its length, distinctly but slightly decurved terminally, without 

 trace of subterminal notch, the tip of maxilla forming a fine, more 

 or less distinctly decurved, point; gonys nearly straight and slightly 

 ascending terminally, faintly convex basally. Nostril exposed, pos- 

 teriorly in contact with latero-frontal feathering, narrow, nearly 

 horizontal, margined above by a rather broad membraneous oper- 

 culum. Rictal bristles obvious but minute; feathers of chin and 

 loral region with small terminal setse. Wing rather long and pointed, 

 the longest primaries exceeding secondaries by about length of tarsus; 

 eighth and ninth, or seventh and eighth, primaries longest, the tenth 

 (outermost) about two-thirds as long as the longest. Tail equal to 

 or longer than wing, graduated for one-third its length, or more, the 

 rectrices (12) abruptly acuminate, with their very rigid shafts very 

 strongly decurved and twisted subterminally. Tarsus much longer 

 than culmen, slender, distinctly scutellate (endaspidean) ; middle toe, 

 with claw, slightly shorter than tarsus; outer toe, with or without 

 claw, as long as or very slightly longer than middle toe; inner toe, 

 without claw, reaching to slightly beyond subterminal articulation of 

 middle toe; hallux much shorter than inner toe, not stouter; middle 

 toe united to outer toe by the whole of its first and about half its 

 second phalanx, to inner toe by greater part of first phalanx; anterior 

 claws large, very strongly curved and acute, that of the hallux much 

 less curved, longer than the digit. 



Coloration. — Rump, tail-coverts, tail, and secondaries cinnamon- 

 rufous, chestnut, or rufous-tawny; pileum and hindneck grayish olive 

 to tawny brown, the back similar or browner; under parts plain 

 grayish olive to olive-ochraceous ; inner webs of remiges crossed 

 obliquely by a broad band of ochraceous-buff, and secondaries with 

 an extensive subterminal (mostly concealed) area of black. Sexes 

 alike. 



Nidification. — Nests in holes; eggs white. 



Range. — Southern Mexico to Venezuela, Tobago, southeastern 

 Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, and Ecuador. (About ten 

 species and subspecies.) 



