PETLAS WOOD- HE WERS. 



375 



The Wattled 

 Ant-Thrushes. 



Family 

 Philepittidce. 



Fig. 117. THE PURPLE 

 PITTA 



natina). 



the soles of the tarsus close together, rectangular, and arranged in regular 

 series. The Philepittidce are ground birds, found only in 

 Madagascar. Two species are known, one black, the other 

 olive above, yellow below, but both having a bluish fleshy 

 carbuncle above the eye. 



ThePittidce differ from all the families we have been recently 

 considering in having the tarsus "ocreate," or covered with an entire scale. With 

 the exception of one species, Pitta an- 



golensis, which inhabits West Africa, The Pittas. 



the whole of the family are denizens of Family Pitiidce. 

 the tropical regions of the Indian and 

 Australian regions. The pittas are birds of bright 

 coloration, inhabitants of the forests, and in many 

 cases migratory. The Burmese genus Anthocinda 

 has long superciliary tufts, which are absent in the 

 other genera. 



The Xeniscidce agree with the Pittidce in the scaling 

 of the tarsus, but have only ten tail-feathers, whereas 

 the pittas have twelve. Three genera are known of 

 these tiny wren-like birds, viz. Acanthidositta, Tra- 

 versia, and Xenicus, all from the New Zealand sub- 

 region. 



The arrangement of the voice- organs in the Tracheo- 

 phonce is exactly opposite to that of the Oscines or 

 ordinary passeres, and the lower end 

 of the trachea is specially modified in order to form an organ Section 



of voice, and the bronchi are not involved in the arrange- Tracheophonce. 

 menb at all. 



The four families composing the Tracheophonce are all neotropical, the 

 Dendrocolaptidce and Formicariidce having only one pair of notches in the 

 hinder margin of the sternum, while 

 the Conopophagidce and Pteroptoc- 

 hidce have two pairs of posterior 

 notches. 



The wood-hewers are about three 

 hundred in number, and are con- 

 tained in six sub-families, three of which, the Fur- 

 nariince (oven-birds), Synallaxince, and Philydonnce 

 have soft-plumaged tails, while the other four, con- 

 sisting of the true wood-hewers and their allies, have 

 spiny tails. The species we have figured comes from 

 North and West Argentina, is somewhat gregarious, 

 and Mr. Barrows says that its habits are somewhat 

 like those of a woodpecker, but it spends much of its 

 time on the. ground searching for insects. 



These are forest birds, inhabiting Central and 

 South ' America, and numbering about 300 species. 

 Mr. Osbert Salvin divides the family 

 into two groups, those which' fre- The Ant-Birds. 

 quent the trees and bushes and have short tarsi, and those Family 



whose habits are terrestrial, and feed on insects on the Formicariidce. 

 ground. The habits of the Formicariidce are not very well 



The 



Wood-Hewers. 

 Family Den- 

 drocolaptidce. 



Fig. 118. BRIDGES' WOOD- 

 HEWER (Drymornis 

 bridgesi). 



