PICUCULE 



719 



DendrocolojAidm, which is so highly characteristic of the Neotropical 

 Region. Not one of them was known to Linnseus, and for many- 

 years very erroneous notions were entertained as to their systematic 

 position. They are mostly small birds of dull appearance, brown 

 being their prevalent hue, with stiff and often sharply-pointed 

 rectrices — a character which led the earlier writers to associate 

 them with the Pici or the Certhiidai (Tree-Creeper), and their 

 entire difference from both those groups was not admitted until 

 shewn by Johannes Miiller. 

 Mr. Sclater {Cat. B. Br. Mus. 

 XV. pp. 2-175) groups them 

 in 5 subfamilies, the first of 

 which, Furnariinx, has been 

 already mentioned in these 

 pages (Oven-bird), while the 

 next three, Synallaxinai (with 8 genera, including Synallaxis and 

 the curious form Oxyurus), Philydorinx (with 17 genera, including 



Anahatoide^ and 

 Phil y dor) and Sde- 

 rurinai call for no 

 particular remark 

 here. The last 

 and most typical 

 subfamily Dendro- 



Synallaxis. Oxyurus. 



(After Swainson.) 



Anabatoides. 



Philydoe. 

 (After Swainson.) 



colaptinse has, according to the authority just named, 15 genera 

 (among which are Dendrocola])tes proper and its section Dendrocops, 



a, Dendrocolaptes ; h, Xiphorhynchus ; c, Dendrocops ; d, Sittasomus ; e, Dexdropi.ex. 



(After Swainsou.) 



XipJiorJiynchns, Sittasomus and Dcndroplcx) and some 80 species. 

 Indeed there is no need here to dwell upon them more than 

 to point out their importance in the Fauna of Southern tropical 

 America. Though now ranging all over the Neotropical Region, 



