GLYPHORHYNCHDB. 113 



oE flight-quills dark brown with an oblique patch of bufE ; lower 

 aspect of tail rufous, the shafts paler than on the upper surface 

 and inclining to white. 



Total length 135 mm., exposed culmen 11, wing 65, tail 63, 

 tarsus 15. 



The female form from which the description is taken was 

 collected on the Supenaam River in 1911. 



Adult male. Similar to the adult female but slightly larger. 

 Wing 76 mm. 



Breeding-season. Unrecorded in British Guiana. 



Nest. Two feet above the ground — a thin network of rootlets 

 and fibres [Beehe). 



Eggs. The eggs were a broad oval in shape, dull white in 

 colour, and measured 20 by 16 mm. (Beebe). 

 ■ Range in British Guiana. Ituribisi River, Supenaam River, 

 Bartica, Kamakabra River, Abary River, Anarica River, Arwye 

 Creek {MeConnell collection) ; Mount Roraima, Kamakusa, Bar- 

 tica ( Wkitely) ; Aremu River {Beebe'). 



Extralimital Range. Surinam {Penard), Cayenne {Jelski), 

 Venezuekj Colombia, Brazil. 



Habits. The following notes are quoted from Beebe (Our 

 Search for a Wilderness, p. 339) : — " I secured a Wedge-billed 

 Pygmy Woodhewer with its single young one, which must have 

 left the nest that very day. Curiously enough, the latter perched 

 as often as it clung to the tree-trunks, and keeping this in mind 

 I found that the measurements of the two birds were very inter- 

 esting. There was almost no difference between the length of 

 the wings and beaks of parent and young, but the tail of the young- 

 bird was only 1/b inches in length as compared with 4f inches in 

 the adult. From this it appears that the climbing habit is not 

 developed as early in the young Woodhewer as in Woodpeckers, 

 in which it seems instinctive from the first. 



" Resting my camera for a moment against the buttress of a 

 giant mora, a small brown bird flew out and I recognised another 

 Wedge-billed Pygmy Woodhewer. It flew to a sapling and 

 peered at me around the side. When I did not move away it 

 came nearer and voiced its disapproval by a five-syllabled cry, 

 chik-chik-chik-chik-chik I This made me suspicious, and. peering 

 down a narrow crevice formed by a deep fold in the buttress I 

 caught a glint of white, and finally made out three eggs, one of 

 VOL. II. I 



