228 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Large Dendrocolaptidas (length about 250-275 mm.) with roundish, 

 nonoperculate nostril, and nearly straight, depressed bill with dis- 

 tance from nostril to tip of maxilla greater than length of tarsus, and 

 more than three times its depth at nostril. 



Bill about as long as or slightly longer than head, nearly straight, 

 broad and depressed basally, its width at frontal antise very slightly 

 to much greater than its depth at same point and equal to less than 

 one-third the distance from nostril to tip of maxilla; culmen very 

 much longer than tarsus, distinctly (sometimes sharply) ridged, 

 gradually (usually very sHghtly) curved to near tip, where abruptly 

 decurved, the tip of maxilla distinctly uncinate; maxillary tomium 

 nearly straight to slightly but distinctly concave, distinctly notched 

 subterminally; mandibular tomium very faintly to rather distinctly 

 convex, with faint trace of subterminal notch; gonys practically 

 straight for most of its length but convex and slightly prominent 

 basally, sometimes slightly decurved terminally. Nostril exposed, 

 posteriorly in contact with latero-frontal feathering, roundish or 

 broadly oval, nonoperculate. Eictal bristles absent, but feathers of 

 chin and lores with loose, semidecomposed, setaceous webs. Wing 

 large, pointed, the longest primaries exceeding secondaries by nearly 

 to quite the distance fi'om nostril to tip of maxilla; seventh, seventh 

 and eighth, or sixth, seventh, and eighth primaries longest, the 

 tenth (outermost) two-thirds or more as long as the longest, the 

 ninth longer than fourth, sometimes longer than fifth. Tail nearly 

 as long as wing, graduated for about the length of culmen, the rec- 

 trices (12) conspicuously acuminate, with very strong and extremely 

 rigid shafts, which are more or less strongly decurved terminally. 

 Tarsus shorter than exposed culmen, a little more than one-fifth 

 as long as wing, rather slender, distinctly scutellate (endaspidean) ; 

 middle toe, with claw, slightly shorter than tarsus; outer toe (with 

 or without claw) as long as middle toe or very slightly longer; inner 

 toe (without claw) reaching to a little beyond subterminal articula- 

 tion of middle toe, its claw reaching to base of middle claw {D. certhia) 

 or f aUing far short (D. validus) ; hallux decidedly shorter than inner 

 toe, little if any stouter; middle toe united to outer toe b}^ whole of 

 basal and part of second phalanx, to inner toe by at least half the 

 basal phalanx; claws large, very strongly curved, very acute, that of 

 the hallux less strongly curved, longer than the digit. 



Coloration. — Brown or oHve, the tail, upper tail-coverts and 

 remiges deep cinnamon-rufous or chestnut; pileum streaked, or 

 spotted with paler brown or buffy or barred with black; under parts 

 paler brown, olive, or brownish buffy more or less distinctly barred 

 with darker or blackish, the chest sometimes streaked, the throat 

 usuall}^ mostly dull whitish or pale brownish bufi'y. Sexes alike. 

 Nidijication. — Nesting in holes of trees ; eggs white. 



