VII DENDROCOLAPTIDAE 487 



one nest is often found in the same tree. The three or four eggs 

 are pale greenish-blue or whitish. Siptornis sordida appears to 

 have similar habits, but several of its congeners run like mice ; 

 or conceal themselves in herbage or holes, the marsh -loving 

 species uttering very whirring notes. ;S^. sulphurifera fabricates 

 a domed nest of grass among rushes, and lays two white eggs ; 

 that of S. mahiro'ides is open, and lined with feathers and wool, 

 though the site is similar; that of S. striaticejos resembles the 

 last-mentioned, but is placed in a tree-fork and contains four or 

 five white eggs. S. hudsoni arched the grass over a hollow in 

 the ground in open spots, and deposits five pale buff eggs on 

 a little powdered dung ; its flight is Pipit-like, and its cry 

 melancholy. Phacellodomus, usually found in hot dry valleys, is 

 sluggish, and has a shrill, harsh voice ; the nest, containing four 

 white eggs, being hung from the end of a branch, and recalling 

 that of Synallaxis. Xenops, Sittosomus, Picolaptes, Xiphorhynchus, 

 Pseudocolaptes, and many other forms are denizens of damp 

 forests, and run up the tree-trunks spirally like Creepers, search- 

 ing for prey and tapping the bark as Woodpeckers do ; the 

 cries are plaintive or noisy, and the white eggs, apparently two 

 in number, are laid in holes. Large insects are sometimes 

 battered upon the branches. Anumbius acuticaudus, the " Thorn- 

 bird " or " Firewood Gatherer," makes a bulky nest some two 

 feet high of thorny sticks, and places it in isolated trees. From 

 an entrance near the top a spiral or zigzag passage leads to a 

 lower cavity lined with grass, hair, feathers, and wool, where five 

 pointed white eggs are deposited ; while sometimes an upper 

 roosting chamber is added. This bird utters ticking chirps or 

 trills, and feeds mainly upon the ground, regaining the branches 

 with difficiilty. Homorus lophotes, the " Cachalote," with its 

 strikingly white eyes and blue beak, haunts plains with scattered 

 trees or bushes, being decidedly shy and quick of foot, though 

 weak of flight ; it eats insects, and turns up the earth with 

 its bill or claws. Easping cries are often emitted in concert ; 

 while the nest — even larger than that of Anumhius — is a loose 

 mass of similar structure, placed on some low branch or in a 

 bush, the three or four white eggs occasionally shewing through 

 the bottom. Drymornis, again, has Woodpecker -like habits, 

 whereas Limnornis and Limnopliyes creep about dense reed-beds, 

 and only appear now and then to utter jarring or chattering sounds. 



