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406 Chapman, The Genus Scytalopus Gould. [oct 



THE MORE NORTHERN SPECIES OF THE GENUS 

 SCYTALOPUS GOULD 1 



BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 2 



The species of the genus Scytalopus are small, black, slaty or 

 brownish wren-like birds of mouse-like habits. Most of them live 

 in dense undergrowth or fallen tree-tops in the forests of the Sub- 

 tropical and Temperate Zones of the Andes where haunt, habit, 

 color and size make them exceedingly inconspicuous in life and all 

 but invisible in death. 



At best they can be seen only when one is within a comparatively 

 few yards of them, and the collector who is not properly equipped 

 with a small gauge gun or auxiliary barrel blows into fragments 

 more specimens than he secures. 



Even after a successful shot in the luxuriant, dark, cloud forest 

 of the Subtropical Zone it usually requires the most minute, pains- 

 taking search, guided by mark of shot here and a stray feather there, 

 to find the fallen bird; while in the more open Temperate Zone 

 forests I have had a specimen slip from my hand to be hopelessly lost 

 in the mass of fallen limbs and undergrowth which, in places, like 

 mossgrown brush-heaps, accumulate beneath the trees. 



The native collector, armed with blow-gun, such as many of them 

 in the Bogota region of Colombia still use, gets comparatively few 

 specimens of birds as difficult to collect as Scytalopus. 



For these reasons, rather than because of the rarity of the birds 

 themselves, most of the species of Scytalopus have been but poorly 

 represented in our collections. In our work in Colombia and the 

 adjoining countries w T e have therefore devoted especial attention 



1 This is the fifth paper based chiefly on collections made in Colombia from 1911 

 to 1915 by expeditions from the American Museum. The four preceding papers 

 were all published in the 'Bulletin' of the Museum as follows: (1) Diagnoses of 

 Apparently New Colombian Birds, XXXI, 1912, pp. 139-166. (2) Diagnoses of 

 Apparently New Colombian Birds, II, XXXIII, 1914, pp. 167-192. (3) Diag- 

 noses of Apparently New Colombian Birds, III, XXXIII, 1914, pp. 603-637. 

 (4) Descriptions of Proposed New Birds from Central and South America. XXXIV,. 

 1915, pp. 363-388. 



Published by permission of the American Museum of Natural History. 



2 Curator of Ornithology in the American Museum of Natural History. 



