236 The Naturalist in La Plata. 
species known. And yet with the exception of 
that dry husk of knowledge, concerning size, form 
and colouration, which classifiers and cataloguers ob- 
tain from specimens, very little indeed—scarcely any- 
thing, in fact—is known about the Tree-creepers; and 
it would not be too much to say that there are many 
comparatively obscure and uninteresting species in 
Europe, any one of which has a larger literature 
than the entire Tree-creeper family. No separate 
work about these birds has seen the hight, even in 
these days of monographs; but the reason of this 
comparative neglect 1s not far to seek. In the 
absence of any knowledge, except of the most frag- 
mentary kind, of the life-habits of exotic species, the 
monograph-makers of the Old World naturally take 
up only the most important groups—1.e. the groups 
which most readily attract the traveller’s eye with 
their gay conspicuous colouring, and which have 
acquired a wide celebrity. We thus have a suc- 
cession of splendid and expensive works dealing 
separately with such groups as woodpeckers, trogons, 
hummine-birds, tanagers, king-fishers, and birds of 
paradise; for with these, even if there be nothing 
to record beyond the usual dreary details and 
technicalities concerning geographical distribution, 
variations in size and markings of different species, 
&e., the little interest of the letter-press is com- 
pensated for in the accompanying plates, which are 
now produced on a scale of magnitude, and with so 
ereat a degree of perfection, as regards brilliant 
colouring, spirited attitudes and general. fidelity to 
nature, that leaves little further improvement in this 
direction to be looked for. The 'T'ree-creepers, being 
