PICOLAPTES ANGUSTIROSTRIS. 201 



rump and upper tail-coverts washed with bright chestnut ; wing-feathers dark 

 chestnut, the outer webs glossed with olivaceous ; tail chestnut ; beneath pale 

 olive-brown, buffy white on the throat and with similar shaft-spots on tho 

 breast ; feathers of the belly and under tail-coverts transversely barred with 

 black ; under wing-coverts cinnamomeous yellow barred with black ; bill and 

 feet black : whole length 12-0 inches, wing 5-4, tail 4-8. Female similar. 



Hob. Brazil arid N. Argentina. 



White obtained examples of this large Wood-hewer in Misiones. 



220. XIPHOCOLAPTES MAJOR (Vieill.). 

 (CHESTNUT WOOD-HEWER.) 



Xiphocolaptes major, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 68; White, P. Z. 8. 1882, 

 p. 613 (Salta) ; Durnford, Ibis, 1880, p. 359 (Tucuman). 



Description. Above and below nearly uniform chestnut, tinged with oliva- 

 ceous on the crown and throat ; narrow shaft-spots on the breast-feathers whitish, 

 forming faint lines ; beak pale horn-colour ; feet bluish grey : whole length 

 11*10 inches, wing 5'5, tail 4'0. Female similar. 



Hab. North Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. 



This large and powerful Wood-hewer is confined to the hottest 

 portion of the Argentine Republic, and also inhabits Paraguay and 

 Bolivia. White met with it at Oran, in the province of Salta, and writes 

 concerning its habits : " Common here in the dense forest, where 

 their continued hard pecking at the lofty tree-trunks is very accentuated. 

 Two or three at a time maintain a continued race up a magnificent 

 clear stem as far as the branches, when they fly to the bottom of the 

 next and do likewise." 



This species is nearly a foot in length, the beak being about two 

 inches long, curved and very powerful. The tail is stiff, being used as 

 a support in climbing, and the claws are strong and sharply hooked. 

 The colour of the whole plumage is nearly uniformly bright rufous. 



221. PICOLAPTES ANGUSTIROSTEIS (Vieill.). 

 (NARROW-BILLED WOOD- HEWER.) 



Picolaptes angustirostris, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 09 ; White, P. Z. S. 1883, 

 p. 433 (Cordova). Lepidocolaptes atripes, Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 21 

 (Entrerios). 



Description. Above, head and neck blackish, with oblong whitish shaft-spots 

 on the crown and neck ; broad superciliaries white, extending nearly to the back 

 and broken at their lower ends into shaft-spots ; rest of upper surface dull 



