304 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



and we were unable to locate a nest during our brief stay al- 

 though we knew that several were breeding near the clearing. 



Like most other tropical families, Antbirds have been 

 compelled by competition to specialize, and we find some 

 Shrike-like in habits as well as appearance; others resembling 

 the long-legged Pittas of the East Indies, while the majority 

 parallel Wrens, Warblers or Thrushes. 



The Woodhewers of the well-named family Dendrocolap- 

 tidae, or Tree-chisellers, form with the Antbirds a con- 

 siderable percentage of the smaller forest birds of this 

 region. There are not far from three hundred forms of 

 these birds, all of dull colors rufous or brown tones pre- 

 vailing. 



Woodhewers in the main parallel the Woodpeckers, and 

 especially the Brown Creepers, in their method of obtaining 

 food. Their claws and feet are strong, the legs short, and 

 the tail feathers in the majority of species are stiff and spine- 

 like. They hitch up the trunks of trees, finding their food 

 in the chinks and crevices of bark, but not boring into the 

 wood like Woodpeckers. While the stiff tails show that all 

 have probably descended from tree-creeping ancestors, some 

 Woodhewers have deserted the trunks and have become 

 Warbler-like in haunt and habit. Such a one is the Cinna- 

 mon Spine-tail 94 or " Rootie" (p. 379). In the tropical forest 

 however, Woodhewers differ but little in their method of 

 locomotion, and one or more of these fox-colored birds hitch- 

 ing up a great trunk is one of the commonest sights. There 

 is remarkable adaptiveness in the bills, some being stout and 

 blunt, others long and curved. 



The notes of these birds are, with the calls of the Toucans 

 and Cotingas, among those most frequently heard. In the 

 early morning especially, the sweet descending scales of single 

 notes from various parts of the forest forms a feature which 

 is seldom lacking. 



