CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE WOODHEWER FAMILY. 



(Dendrocolaptidce.) 



THE South American Tree-creepers, or "Woodhewers, 

 as they are sometimes called, although confined 

 exclusively to one continent, their range extending 

 from Southern Mexico to the Magellanic islands, 

 form one of the largest families of the order 

 Passeres; no fewer than about two hundred and 

 ninety species (referable to about forty-six genera) 

 having been already described. As they are mostly 

 small, inconspicuous, thicket-frequenting birds, shy 

 and fond of concealment to excess, it is only rea- 

 sonable to suppose that our list of this family is 

 more incomplete than of any other family of birds 

 known. Thus, in the southern Plata and north Pata- 

 gonian districts, supposed to be exhausted, where my 

 observations have been made, and where, owing to 

 the open nature of the country, birds are more easily 

 remarked than in the forests and marshes of the tro- 

 pical region, I have made notes on the habits of five 

 species, of which I did not preserve specimens, and 

 which, as far as I know, have never been described 

 and named. Probably long before the whole of South 

 America has been " exhausted," there will be not 

 less than four to five hundred Dendrocolaptine 



