236 The Naturalist in La Plata. 



species known. And yet with the exception of 

 that dry husk of knowledge, concerning size, form 

 and colouration, which classifiers and cataloguers ob- 

 tain from specimens,very little indeed — scarcely any- 

 thing,in fact — is known about the Tree-creepers; and 

 it would not be too much to say that there are many 

 comparatively obscure and uninteresting species in 

 Europe, any one of which has a larger literature 

 than the entire Tree-creeper family. No separate 

 work about these birds has seen the light, even in 

 these days of monographs; but the reason of this 

 comparative neglect is not far to seek. In the 

 absence of any knowledge, except of the most frag- 

 mentary kind, of the life-habits of exotic species, the 

 monograph-makers of the Old World naturally take 

 up only the most important groups — i.e. the groups 

 which most readily attract the traveller's eye with 

 their gay conspicuous colouring, and which have 

 acquired a wide celebrity. We thus have a suc- 

 cession of splendid and expensive works dealing 

 separately with such groups as woodpeckers, trogons, 

 humming-birds, tanagers, king-fishers, and birds of 

 paradise ; for with these, even if there be nothing 

 to record beyond the usual dreary details and 

 technicalities concerning geographical distribution, 

 variations in size and markings of different species, 

 &c, the little interest of the letter-press is com- 

 pensated for in the accompanying plates, which are 

 now produced on a scale of magnitude, and with so 

 great a degree of perfection, as regards brilliant 

 colouring, spirited attitudes and general fidelity to 

 nature, that leaves little further improvement in this 

 direction to be looked for. The Tree- creepers, being 



