TREE-CREEPERS. 



93 



compartment, better furnished with feathers and other warm 

 materials, on which the female lays four or five eggs. The parent 

 birds take great care of these nests, in the repair of which they 

 seem to be constantly engaged, and from which they drive their 

 young as soon as they are able to take care of themselves. 



In the woodland scenery of Bahia, in Brazil, the nests of these 

 birds form very striking objects, being sometimes three or four 

 feet long, and resembling, at a distance, thick twists of bean-stalks 

 thrown amongst the branches by accident. Both the male and 

 female may generally be seen near their remarkable domiciles, 

 uttering a shrill monotonous chirp. 



The type of this sub-family is the — 

 Chilian Synallaxis {Syjiallaxis riijicapilla). 



Sub-Family III. 

 THE TREE-CREEPERS. DENDROCOLAPTIN^.* 



General Characteristics. — Bill of various length and form, more or less curved, 

 and compressed on the sides to the tip, which is usually entire ; the nostrils basal, late- 

 ral, small, and exposed ; the wings moderate and generally rounded ; the tail long, 

 broad, and graduated, with the shaft of each feather prolonged beyond the web, and 

 acute ; the tarsi moderate, strong, and broadly scaled ; the toes long, the outer toe 

 rather longer than the middle one, and united for some distance from the base, the 

 inner short and slightly united at the base, the hind toe long ; the claws long, com- 

 pressed, much curved, and acute. 



The Tree-Creepers are distinguished by the structure of their 

 tail, which is long, broad, and graduated. The typical species in- 

 habit the vast forests of the warmer parts of South America. They 

 are usually observed clinging to the trunks and branches of trees, 

 by means of their strong curved claws, and supported by the rigid 

 points of their tail-feathers, examining the cracks in the bark, and 

 prying among the foliage for insects or their larvs, upon which 

 they principally subsist. Their manners and habits closely assimi- 

 late to those of our common creeper. The female deposits three 

 or four eggs in the hollow trunk of a tree. 



The Curve-billed Tree-Creepers {Xiphorhytichus) are all of them 

 inhabitants of the Brazilian forests, and, as the character of their claws and 

 the stiff pointed shafts of the tail-feathers sufficiently indicate, are decidedly 



* S^vSpov, dendron, a tree; KoXdirru, colapto, to peck: tree-peckers. 



