FAMILY DENDROCOLAPTIDAE I3 



DECHONYCHURA LONGICAUDA (Pelzeln) : Long-tailed 

 Woodcreeper, Trepador Cola de Unas 



Dendrocincla longicauda Pelzeln, Orn. Bras., Abth. 1, 1868, p. 60. (Manaus, 

 Amazonas, Brazil.) 



Small, slender; dark brown, with chin and throat bufif; in color 

 pattern similar to the Wedge-billed Woodcreeper, but larger, with 

 longer bill and longer tail. 



Description. — Length 170-185 mm. Adult (sexes alike), crown 

 brownish olive to olive, with shaft lines of buff ; back and scapulars 

 reddish brown to olive-brown ; lower rump and upper tail coverts 

 chestnut ; wing coverts somewhat paler than back ; wings cinnamon- 

 rufous, with the tips of the primaries dusky ; tail, including shafts of 

 the rectrices, chestnut ; lores dull grayish white ; narrow superciliary 

 streak buff ; side of head mixed dusky and buff ; chin and throat 

 dull buff ; lower foreneck, breast, sides, and abdomen dusky-olive, 

 with the upper breast spotted with buff, the spots bordered narrowly 

 with olive-black ; lower breast, and in some the abdomen, with shaft 

 lines of buff ; under tail coverts cinnamon ; axillars basally white ; 

 under wing coverts cinnamon-buff ; inner surface of primaries and 

 secondaries basally cinnamon-rufous. 



Dr. Thomas R. Howell (Auk, 1956, pp. 517-528) has made a 

 careful analysis of specimens then available from Central America, 

 29 in number, among them two that he had collected at Arenal in 

 northwestern Nicaragua, a notable extension of the previously known 

 range. These two agree with the series from Costa Rica and are 

 identified as the subspecies fypica. With only three specimens avail- 

 able from central and eastern Panama, and only one of these 

 recently collected, differences assigned by Griscom to birds of that 

 area were not apparent so that these three were placed with typica. 

 With six additional skins, collected in the eastern area since 1957 

 it is now apparent that birds from this locality are very faintly darker, 

 more olive above. With due allowance for the extensive color 

 changes as skins age in museums we may now recognize two races 

 in the Republic of Panama. 



As a whole the species ranges from northwestern Nicaragua 

 through southern Central America, and in South America from 

 Colombia and southern \'enezuela to northern Bolivia and central 

 Brazil. 



