FAMILY DENDROCOLAPTIDAE 45 



Medium size ; back wings, and tail cinnamon-brown ; breast, crown, 

 and hindneck streaked with dull white. 



Description. — Length 170-195 mm. Adult (sexes alike), crown 

 and hindneck dull dark brown, each feather with a central streak of 

 pale bufify white ; back, scapulars, and wing coverts rather dull 

 cinnamon-brown, the upper back in some with streaks of dull white 

 bordered narrowly with blackish brown ; rump, upper tail coverts, 

 wings, and tail cinnamon-rufous, with the primaries tipped with 

 dusky ; side of head blackish brown, streaked like the crown, with an 

 indistinctly indicated superciliary streak of pale buffy white ; chin and 

 throat dull white to pale cinnamon-bufif ; f oreneck, breast, and abdomen 

 grayish brown, each feather with a broad central line of pale bufify 

 white, margined narrowly on either side with a dusky line, these 

 markings often reduced on the under tail coverts ; edge of wing dull 

 white, spotted finely with dusky ; under wing coverts pale cinnamon- 

 buff; under surface of primaries, except at tips, cinnamon. 



Juvenile, like adult, but with streaks on lower breast and abdomen 

 indefinite or absent, replaced in part by a few small, scattered spots of 

 dusky ; under tail coverts pale cinnamon-buff. 



These are inhabitants of open woodland, small tracts or lines 

 of trees along streams, or the borders of swamps ; found less often 

 in extensive forests. Occasionally I have noted them working care- 

 fully over lines of posts supporting fences across pastures, or rarely, 

 those separating houses in suburban areas not too densely populated. 

 They range alone or often in couples that may be true pairs or an 

 adult accompanied by an immature bird of adult or near adult size. 

 Their movements are like those of large woodcreepers in that they 

 climb steadily upward, sometimes on trees of small size. Always they 

 are quiet and inconspicuous, except that in the nesting season they 

 utter low melodious trills, a repetition of a single musical note. 



The species is widely spread in tropical America from southern 

 Mexico through Central America to northwestern Peru and much 

 of Brazil, including the island of Trinidad. 



Two races are found in the Republic. 



LEPIDOCOLAPTES SOULEYETII COMPRESSUS (Cabanis) 



Thripobrotus compressus Cabanis, Journ. f. Orn., vol. 9, July 1861, p. 243. 

 (Costa Rica.) 



Characters. — Light streaks on lower surface, crown, and hindneck 

 broad and conspicuous, those on the hindneck extending down on 

 the upper back ; chin and throat very pale buff to dull white. 



