AVES DENDROCOLAPTID/E. 



771 



black varied with chestnut or tawny, forming a broad diagonal band in- 

 volving all but the two outermost primaries ; tail graduated, outer feath- 

 ers the shortest, central feathers olive brown with a terminal black shaft 

 streak, others black with a tawny terminal area decreasing in size toward 

 the center; under parts white tinged with buff, sides of the body and 

 flanks brownish. 



Geographical Range. — Paraguay, Uruguay and Peru south to Chili 

 and Patagonia at least to Rio Santa Cruz. 



Fig. 387. Phlceocryptes melanops 9 • 7944- About two-thirds natural size. 



The naturalists of the Princeton Expeditions found this bird on the 

 upper waters of the Rio Chico de Santa Cruz in March ; here the birds 

 were apparently common as three were secured in two successive days. 

 The birds look much like exaggerated long-billed marsh wrens [ Tebnato- 

 dytes palustris (Wilson)], so much so that one is disposed at once to 

 picture a marsh in connection with this dendrocolaptine bird. In fact it 

 does frequent the vicinity of water, particularly where there are rushes or 

 thick grasses along the stream. The Dendrocolaptidse, as they are mani- 

 fested in southern South America, appear closely to approximate in habit 

 such widely separated forms as wrens, desert wrens, creepers, nuthatches, 

 titmice, reed warblers and perhaps others among the group of perching 

 song birds. 



