C.EREBID^ — THE CREEPERS. 



425 



Family CiEREBIDiE, — The Creepers. 



As already stated on page 177, there is little to distiiiguisli the Ccerehidce 

 from the Sylvicolidce, except by the longer and more protracted tongue, and 

 by the narrower gape in some of the forms. Tlie genera Certhiola, Cccreba, 

 Diglossa, etc., have peculiarities by which they are easily recognized ; but 

 when we come to such members as Dacnis, Conirostrmii, etc., it becomes 

 ^•ery diflicult to separate them from the slender-billed Tanagers, the Wood 

 Warblers, and the HelynintJiophngas. 



Although the family is one widely distributed, in numerous genera, over 

 Middle and Soutli America, but one, Certhiola, belongs to North America, 

 this being represented liy a species, or rather a race, abundant in the Baha- 

 mas, and occasionally met with in the Florida Keys. We shall therefore 

 give only the diagnosis of this family. 



Genus CERTHIOLA, Sundevall. 



Certliiola, Sundevall, Vet. Akad. Haiidl. Stockholm, 1835, 99. (Type, Ccrtliia flaveola, 

 Linn.) 



Gen. Char. Bill iieai-ly as long a.s the head ; as high as broad at base, elongated, conical, 

 very acute, and gently decurved from base to tip. 

 Culmen uniformly convex ; gonys concave. No 

 bristles at base of bill. Tail rounded, rather shorter 

 than the wings. Tarsi longer than the middle toe. 

 Iris brown ? Nest pensile and arched. Eggs with 

 yellowish gi'ound dotted thickly with rufous spots. 



This genus is one of tliose especially char- 

 acterizing the West Indies, almost every 

 island as far as known having its peculiar 



^•nn • ■ ,_ • j_ • ^• ^ 1 Certliiola flaveola, Sund. 



species,, diffenng, it is true, m very sliglit 



characters, but always constant to the normal type. Cuba alone has so far 

 furnished no representative of this genus, its place being supplied ap- 

 parently by Cccreba cyanea. The specimens from St. Thomas I cannot 

 distinguish from those of Porto Eico, but this is, so far as the series before 

 me indicates, the only case where one species occurs on two islands. All 

 the West Indian species, nine or ten in number, agree in having tlie whole 

 upper part nearly uniformly dusky or blackish ; the head and l)ack being 

 concolored, while of the three or four South American all but one (C. 

 luteola) have the back more olivaceous, the head much darker. Again, 

 the West Indian species, with a single exception {C. Imnanivora), have both 

 webs of lateral tail-feathers liroadly and about equally tipped with white ; 

 while in all the South American this white is more restricted on the inner 

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