236 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
about one-fourth as long as wing, stout, very distinctly scutellate 
(endaspidean); middle toe, with claw, about as long as tarsus or 
slightly longer; outer toe (with or without claw) as long as middle 
toe or barely shorter; inner toe (without claw) reaching to subter- 
minal articulation of middle toe, its claw falling considerably short 
of terminal articulation of middle toe; hallux much shorter than 
inner toe and slightly thicker; middle toe united for whole of its first 
and part of its second phalanx to outer toe, for about half its first 
phalanx to inner toe; claws large, very strongly curved, very acute, 
that of the hallux less strongly curved, equal to or slightly longer 
than the digit. 
Coloration.—Tail and remiges cinnamon-rufous or chestnut, the 
inner webs of longer primaries tipped with dusky; rest of plumage 
brownish (sometimes cinnamon-rufous), the chest, pileum, and 
hindneck (sometimes back also) streaked with paler, the throat at 
least partly dull whitish. Sexes alike. 
Nidification.—Nests in holes; eggs white. 
Range.—Southern Mexico to southeastern Brazil, Paraguay, 
Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru. (About eighteen species, including 
subspecies.?) 
KEY TO THE SUBSPECIES OF XIPHOCOLAPTES EMIGRANS.} 
a. Smaller (wing averaging 137.5 in male, 134.7 in female; culmen averaging 46.9 
in male, 48.7 in female). (Highlands of Guatemala.) 
Xiphocolaptes emigrans emigrans (p. 237). 
bb. Larger (wing averaging 140 or more in males, 136 or more in females; culmen 
averaging 52 or more in males, usually more than 55 in females). 
c. Coloration darker and brighter (much as in X. e. emigrans). 
d. Wing averaging shorter (140 in male, 138 in female) but bill larger (culmen 
averaging 58 in male, 55 in female); pileum darker, with streaks paler. 
(Highlands of southeastern Mexico.) 
Xiphocolaptes emigrans sclateri (p. 238). 
dd. Wing averaging longer (145.5 in male, 136 in female) but bill smaller 
(culmen averaging 52 in male, 47.7 in female); pileum lighter or browner, 
with streaks more buffy. (Highlands of Costa Rica.) 
Xiphocolaptes emigrans costaricensis (p. 239). 
cc. Coloration paler and duller. (Wing averaging 143.3 in male, 140.5 in female; 
culmen averaging 54.2 in male, 56.5 in female.) (Highlands of south- 
western Mexico).........-. Xiphocolaptes emigrans omiltemensis (p. 239). 
@ The following have been examined in the preparation of this work: X. albicollis 
(Vieillot), X. argentinus Ridgway, X. emigrans Sclater (and its several subspecies), 
X. promeropirhynchus (Lesson), X. crassirostris Taczanowski and Berlepsch, X. 
fortis Heine, X. virgatus Ridgway, X. ignotus Ridgway, X. compressirostris Tac- 
zanowski, X. saturatus Ridgway, X. major Vieillot, X. castaneus Ridgway, and 
X. cinnamomeus Ridgway. 
b All the Mexican and Central American forms of this genus are evidently very 
closely related to X. promeropirhynchus (Lesson) and other forms of northern South 
America; but material available for study is so scant that their exact status can not 
be worked out at the present time. 
