LITTLE HOUSEKEEPER 195 



our linear system of classification (and all systems 

 must be linear) a species or a family unrelated to 

 any other must be given a place somewhere in the 

 line. The Tyrant-birds, which come nearest super- 

 ficially to the Old World Flycatchers, although 

 structurally differing from them, number at least 

 350 species ; the Family we now come to, the Wood- 

 hewers or Dendrocolaptidae, count about 250, Thus, 

 these two South American families alone, both in 

 the songless sub-order of the Passeres, outnumber 

 all the species of birds in Europe from the Eagle to 

 the Wren* 



In Argentina the Dendrocolaptidae number about 

 fifty species, and of these I have to describe twenty 

 known to me from personal observation* 



LITTLE HOUSEKEEPER 



Geositta cunicularia 



Above nearly uniform earthy brown ; wing-feathers pale cinnamon- 

 red ; greater part of the outer webs, excepting the inner secondaries, 

 blackish ; tail pale cinnamon-red, with a broad blackish band across 

 the terminal half; beneath pale fulvous white, breast more or less 

 variegated with blackish ; under wing-coverts pale cinnamon ; length 

 5.5 inches. 



THE country people have a variety of names for this 

 common and well-known species* In Buenos Ayres 

 it is usually called Mama-cola (Shake-tail), in Pata- 

 gonia Caserita (Little Housekeeper), and in other 



