1909] Beebe: Birds of Northeastern Venezuela. 93 



Dysithamnus affinis andrei (Hellm.). Andre's Antbird, 



This Trinidad form has not been taken in Venezuela before. 

 A pair was seen at La Brea on April 10th and the male secured. 

 Like other ant-birds they kept among the underbrush, feeding 

 on small insects of various kinds. 



(Several other species of ant-thrushes were seen but not 

 identified. Among them were two rufous colored species, one 

 with a black and white face and the other with black under- 

 parts.) 



FaUiily DENDROCOLAPTIDAE. 



Synallaxis cinnamomea (Gmel.). Cinnamon Spine-tail. 



At La Brea these birds were common in pairs wherever 

 there were low bushes on the lake. Although they have the 

 stiff, spiny, creeper-like tail of the typical woodhewers, yet they 

 seem to have completely lost the climbing habit. They remind 

 one constantly of marsh wrens in their jerky motions; flirting 

 the tail and clinging to the upright stems of sedges, while in 

 color they recall the female bearded tit. 



The song is a series of squeaking or rattling chirps. The 

 acquisition of such radically new habits without a correspond- 

 ing change in structure is very interesting. A male which I 

 secured had been feeding on small insects. 



Dendrornis susurans susurans (Jard.). Cocoa Woodhewer. 



Fairly common along the Caiio Guanoco and the railroad 

 track near La Brea. Days before we identified the bird we 

 heard its sweet dropping song of eight or ten notes recalling 

 some of the utterances of a canyon wren. Even when the song 

 came from the tree directly overhead, it was almost impossible 

 to locate the mottled brown singer while it clung motionless to 

 the bark. 



These birds were always to be found in the van of the 

 armies of hunting ants, feeding both on the frightened winged 

 insects aroused by their enemy, and on the ants themselves. 

 The woodhewers fly to the ground, snatch their prey, and swing 

 up to a tree trunk, where they brace themselves creeper-like, and 

 if the insect is too large to swallow entire, they wedge it into 

 a crevice of bark and eat it piecemeal. At other times they find 

 their food in true creeper fashion, under pieces of bark and 

 lichens and among the roots of aerial orchids and other plants. 

 They were in breeding condition. 



