THE WOODHEWERS 1717 



median band extends from the forehead to the nape; the back scapulars and upper 

 rump are green; the lower rump, upper tail coverts, and lesser wing coverts, pale 

 blue; a broad black band passes over the eye; the primaries are black, tipped with 

 gray; the tail is black, tipped with dull blue; the chin and throat are white, and the 

 lower abdomen and under tail coverts crimson. The blue pitta (P. cyanea), which 

 is found in Bhutan, Arrakan, Pegu, Tenasserim, and as far east as Siam, is a bird of 

 considerable beauty, though far inferior in lustre to many of the Malayan species. 

 of the genus. Like other members of the family, it lives principally in dense 

 scrub and jungle, obtaining its insect prey upon the ground. It begins to build 

 its nest in the month of May, making a huge globular structure of dry leaves and 

 twigs, placed upon the ground, and lined with fine twigs and grass roots. The eggs 

 are white in ground color, marked with various shades of purple. The adult male 

 has the forehead and crown greenish gray, changing to red, and giving place 

 entirely to red on the nape, where the feathers are long and form a crest; the upper 

 parts and tail are blue; the primaries brown, with a white basal patch; the lores and 

 a broad streak from the eye to the nape black; the chin and throat whitish, and the 

 lower parts light blue, barred with black. 



THE WOODHEWERS 



v 



Family DENDROCOLAPTID^E 



The woodhewers are birds chiefly of a brown coloration, with more or less 

 rigid tail feathers; having the bill long or moderate and laterally compressed, and 

 rather strong, straight, or curved; while the third, fourth, and fifth quills of the 

 wing are the longest, the tail feathers are stiff, pointed, and often of a ferruginous 

 color, and the claws of the feet are much curved. Upward of two hundred and 

 twenty species of wood hewers are found ranging from Mexico to Patagonia; no 

 fewer than thirteen of these genera being confined to the high Andes and south 

 temperate America, while fourteen are restricted to the tropical parts of South 

 America. A single species is found in the Falkland islands. Among this vast 

 assemblage, the limits of space prevent our referring to more than two of the 

 genera. 



Oven Birds ^ e oven birds (Fumartus') have the bill shorter than the head, 

 laterally compressed and pointed, the upper mandible being slightly 

 curved; the wings are moderate, the tail consists of twelve feathers, and the feet 

 are strong and adapted to terrestrial progression. The members of this genus 

 range all over South America, eighteen species being restricted to the temperate 

 regions. A well-known species in Paraguay (F. rufus), Uruguay, and Argentina 

 is the red oven bird, which enjoys a wide popularity on account of its familiarity 

 with man, its loud ringing voice, and the wonderful mud nest, which it prefers 

 to build near a human habitation, often upon a projecting beam or the roof of 

 the house itself. Mr. W. H. Hudson says that in favorable seasons the oven birds 



