DENDEOCOPUS.— DENDEOBATES. 437 



the tierra caliente bordering the Pacific coast from Sonora to Tehuantepec. It seems 

 to thrive better in the Marias than elsewhere, for there it is very numerous and may 

 be seen, or its gentle tappings heard, in the quiet woods at all hours of the day, busy 

 drilling into the dried branches and logs in search of borers or white ants, upon which 

 it becomes very fat. I found a nest (in the month of April) of a pair of these little 

 Woodpeckers upon the island near the sea-shore, bored into the green flower-stem of a 

 large maguey plant. The entrance of the nest was beautifully rounded, and about 

 twelve feet from the ground. This small, slender, smooth stem, not more than four 

 inches in diameter, with its soft spongy wood, afforded a convenient material to work 

 out the nest, as well as a sure protection against the raccoon or other intruders, the 

 long spear-shaped leaves, armed with spines at the root, preventing the possibility of a 

 near approach to it from the ground without some labour of cutting them away. Both 

 birds evinced a great deal of uneasiness at my presence. As I had no instrument, 

 however, to cut away the dagger-shaped leaves of the maguey, I left the birds with 

 their well-fortified domicile." 



Dr. Gaumer 12 says that this Woodpecker occurs in all parts of Yucatan, though it 

 is not at all common, and is met with both in the towns and ranches. The iris in life 

 is reddish brown. In the island of Cozumel Mr. Devis says ^^ it is rarer than the other 

 Woodpeckers, but found with them in the uncleared woods. 



d". Cauda quam remex secundus hrevior. 



DENDEOBATES. 



Dendrobates, Swainson, Faun. Bor.-Am., Birds, p. 301 (1831) ; Hargitt, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xviii. 

 p. 337. 



Mr. Hargitt recognizes twenty-five species belonging to this genus, which is a purely 

 Neotropical one. Only four of these occur within our limits, and of these three are 

 exceedingly closely allied to one another and to D. fumigatus of the Southern 

 Continent ; the fourth, D. cecilice, only just enters our fauna in the State of Panama. 



The culmen is a sharp ridge, the bill on either side being scooped into a smooth 

 channel, which is bounded along the lower edge by the ridge above the nostrils ; the 

 groove beneath this is well defined and deep. The tarsus is usually slightly longer 

 than the outer toe (reversed), which again is longer than the middle toe. 



a. Suhtusfere unicolor ; dorsum posticum et tectrices supracaudales concolores. 



I. Dendrobates oleagineus. 



Picas oleagineus, Licht. Preis-Verz. mex. Vog. p. 1 [cf. J. £. Om. 1863, p. 55) '. 

 Chloronerpes {Phaionerpes) oleagineus, Reich. Scansores, p. 356, t. dclxxv. figg. 4467-8 ^ 

 Chloronerpes oleagineus, Scl. P. Z. S. 1856, p. 307'; 1859, pp. 367*, 388 = ; Sumichrast, La Nat. v. 

 p. 240 " ; Ferrari-Perez, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. ix. p. 159 \ 



