264 The Birds of British Guiana. 



the Yellovv-sliouldered Whydalis. As is also the case with the 

 two preceding" they are unknown to avicidture, and very Httle 

 is on record as regards their wild life also. 

 (To be Continued). 



^ 



The Birds of British Guiana. 



By Chas. Dawson, S.J., M.A., (Oxon). 

 (Continued from p. 22/). 



WOOD-HEWERS. 



IVood-hezvers, like ant-thrushes are a large and little- 

 known family, and like them, are peculiar to the New World. 

 There are no less than fifty genera and four hundred species. 

 They do not precisely "hew" the wood and would be better 

 called "wood-peckers" were this name not already in possession 

 of birds that might lay better claim to theirs. They might be 

 better named "woodpeckers," for they run with great ease about 

 the trunks of trees picking out insects and their larvae from 

 holes and crevices. When the trunk of the tree is slender they will 

 ascend or descend, sitting as it were astride, and clipping the 

 tree with the sides of their feet with great adroitness, much in 

 the manner of wood-peckers. They vary in size, the largest being 

 a foot long; but generally they are only half that size. Red, 

 rufous, or chestnut, are the prevailing colours, while the head 

 and neck may be streaked or freckled with light hufi or white, 

 and there may be white or black patches on rump or throat re- 

 spectively. The tail feathers, generally rounded, have in many 

 cases projecting spines, like those of wood-peckers, which mat- 

 erially assist the bird in ascending or descending" trees; and on 

 them it can rest back during its "wood-hewing" operations. The 

 beak may be long and curved, in one species, Xiphorhynchus 

 procurvus, enormously so. They build their nests, sometimes 

 great structures, in trees and shrubs or in holes of trees or banks. 

 The sexes are similar. The voice is sometimes loud — the note 

 being rapidly repeated in a descending trill — and sometimes ras- 

 ping or chattering. 



