CLIMBING WOOD-HEWER 235 



arched gallery, neatly made of slender sticks resting 

 along a horizontal branch, and about fourteen inches 

 long. This peculiar entrance no doubt prevents the 

 intrusion of snakes and small mammals* The struc- 

 ture differs from all the domed nests of other species 

 of Woodhewers in the spaciousness of the cavity 

 where the eggs are laid. The dome removed, an eagle 

 or vulture could breed in it quite comfortably. So 

 strongly made is the nest that I have stood on the 

 dome of one and stamped on it with my heavy boots 

 without injuring it in the least, and to demolish one 

 I had to force my gun barrel into it, then prize it up 

 by portions. I examined about a dozen of these 

 enormous structures, but they were all met with 

 before or after the laying season, so that I did not 

 see the eggs. 



CLIMBING WOOD-HEWER 



Picolaptes angustirostru 



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 brown, brighter on the rump ; wing-feathers pale 

 obscure chestnut ; outer webs and broad tips of primaries blackish ; 

 tail chestnut; sides of breast and belly thickly marked with faint 

 blackish stripes ; under wing-coverts cinnamon ; length 8.2 inches. 



THIS is the only member of the genus Picolaptes as 

 yet met with within the limits of the Argentine 

 Republic. Azara found it abundant in Paraguay, 



