FAMILY DENDROCOLAPTIDAE 9 



found in February 1966 climbing about below the tree crown in small 

 tracts of forest at Olivo near the coast northeast of Puerto Armuelles. 



The subspecies seems never to have been common in the Republic, 

 and undoubtedly has been reduced in numbers through extensive 

 clearing of the forests. Specimens in museum collections change 

 color considerably. Those recently collected are easily distinguished 

 from D.. a. anabatina by darker, more olivaceous hue above, and the 

 duller shade of the centers of the primaries. In Costa Rica this form 

 ranges in the southwest from the Gulf of Nicoya southward. 



Willis (Auk, 1960, pp. 158-159) in British Honduras found these 

 woodcreepers following columns of raiding ants. Usually they clung 

 to tree trunks to seize flying insects flushed by the invaders, or those 

 that alighted near them. He noted their aggressive nature, as fre- 

 quently they drove at larger ant-tanagers, with these giving way. 

 Skutch (Pac. Coast Avif. no. 35, 1969. pp. 396-414) in a detailed 

 account of studies in Costa Rica also found them following ants. He 

 also verifies their aggressiveness, both with other woodcreepers, and 

 with such larger species as the Golden-naped Woodpecker (Centurus 

 chrysauchen) and the Red-crowned (or Wagler's) Woodpecker 

 {Centurus rubricapillus) whose nesting and sleeping holes it ap- 

 propriated. 



Skutch found nests of this species placed in natural cavities, some 

 of them open at the top, and others better sheltered in woodpecker 

 holes. In all those seen only one bird, assumed to be the female, was 

 in attendance. In six nests the complete set was of two eggs, ovate in 

 form, and pure white in color. These were placed on flakes of bark, 

 rootlets, green moss, and lichens as the nest lining, with other bits 

 added as incubation progressed. No egg measurements were re- 

 corded, apparently since the eggs were not accessible. The young at 

 hatching were covered scantily with long gray down. In one instance 

 a Tawny-winged Woodcreeper usurped a nest cavity of the Streak- 

 headed Woodcreeper (Lepidocolaptes souleyetii compressus) in 

 which the latter had two eggs. One of these was hatched and reared 

 by the intruder after the rightful parents had been driven away ! 



DENDROCINCLA HOMOCHROA (Sclater) : Ruddy Woodcreeper, 



Trepador Leonado 



Dendromanes homochrous P. L. Sclater, Proc. Zool. See. London, pt. 27, 1859 

 (February, 1860), p. 382. (Teotalcingo, Oaxaca, Mexico.) 



Throat cinnamon-bufif ; crown and entire wing cinnamon. 

 Description. — Length 185-195 mm. Adult (sexes alike), crown, 

 rump, wings except tips, and tail chestnut ; back dull ruf escent brown ; 



