168 ROCKY MOUNTAIN ANTCATCHER. 
which, in fact, seem to be seldom employed for any other pur- 
pose than to assist them in running along the ground, or in 
leaping from branch to branch of bushes and low trees,—an 
exercise in which they display remarkable activity. Some 
species, like the woodpeckers, climb on the trunks of trees in 
pursuit of insects; and it would appear, from their restless 
habits and almost constant motion, that their limited excur- 
sions are entirely attributable to the want of more ample pro- 
vision for flight. The antcatchers are never found in settled 
districts, where their favourite insects are generally less abun- 
dant ; but they live in the dense and remote parts of forests, 
far from the abodes of man and civilisation. They also dislike 
open and wet countries. 
The note of the antcatchers is as various as the species are 
different; but it is always very remarkable and peculiar. 
Their flesh is oily, and disagreeable to the taste; and, when 
the bird is opened, a very offensive odour is diffused from the 
remains of half-digested ants and other insects contained in 
the stomach. 
The plumage of the antcatchers very probably undergoes 
considerable changes in colour. The size of the sexes is dif- 
ferent, the female being much larger than the male. Such 
variations may have induced naturalists to consider many as 
species that really do not exist as such in nature. 
The nest of these birds is hemispherical, varying in magni- 
tude according to the size of the species, composed of dried 
grass rudely interwoven ; it is fixed to small trees, or attached 
by each side to a branch, at the distance of two or three feet 
from the ground. The eggs are nearly round, and three or 
four in number. 
The discovery of any species of this genus in the Old World 
is quite recent, and it had previously been believed that the 
genus was peculiar to South America; and though the exist- 
ence of ant-destroying birds was suspected in other tropical 
regions, they were supposed to be generically distinct from 
those of the corresponding parts of America, as was known to 
