FAMILY FORMICARIID^E 



though often handsome from contrasting 

 areas and markings of black, white and 

 chestnut. Their notes are varied, often pe- 

 culiar and unusual, but sometimes of soft 

 and agreeable quality. 



In the Canal Zone the antbirds form a 

 conspicuous part of the bird fauna, and 

 several of them are among the species that 

 the beginner in bird study is likely to meet. 

 They are mostly rather active and often 

 noisy birds of characteristic appearance, and 

 it is chiefly in the case of small antwrens that 

 they are likely to be mistaken for members 

 of other families. The much larger head and 

 bill will serve to distinguish them from the 

 warblers, and the fact that they do not 

 hold the tail up and do not as a rule have the 

 skulking habits of wrens, helps to distin- 

 guish them from that family. 



Key to the Antbirds 



I. Length 106 mm. (4.20 in.) or less, tail relatively short. 

 A. Plumage streaked on upper parts. 



a. Under parts white streaked with black 



Myrmotherula surinamensis, male 



aa. Under parts neither white nor streaked with 



black. 



b. Under parts buffy tinged with tawny on 

 breast, head rufous tawny streaked with 



black 



Myrmotherula surinamensis, female 



bb. Under parts pale primrose yellow. 



c. Head black streaked with rufous tawny . . . 



Myrmotherula brachyura, female 



cc. Head black streaked with pale straw color. 

 Myrmotherula brachyura, male 



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