CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE WOODHEWER FAMILY. 
(Dendrocolaptid.) 
THE South American Tree-creepers, or Woodhewers, 
as they are sometimes called, although confined 
exclusively to one continent, their range extending 
from Southern Mexico to the Magellanic islands, 
form one of the largest families of the order 
Passeres; no fewer than about two hundred and 
ninety species (referable to about forty-six genera) 
having been already described. As they are mostly 
small, inconspicuous, thicket-frequenting birds, shy 
and fond of concealment to excess, it is only rea- 
sonable to suppose that our list of this family is 
more incomplete than of any other family of birds 
known. Thus, inthe southern Plata and north Pata- 
gonian districts, supposed to be exhausted, where my 
observations have been made, and where, owing to 
the open nature of the country, birds are more easily 
remarked than in the forests and marshes of the tro- 
pical region, I have made notes on the habits of five 
species, of which I did not preserve specimens, and 
which, as far as I know, have never been described 
and named. Probably long before the whole of South 
America has been ‘“‘ exhausted,” there will be not 
less than four to five hundred Dendrocolaptine 
