242 The N'atuiailist in La Plata, 
widely separated and apparently uDrelated, it would 
be difficult indeed to say which of their most 
striking habits is the ancestral one. Many of the 
smaller species live in trees or bushes, and in their 
habits resemble tits, warblers, wrens, and other 
kinds that subsist on small caterpillars, spiders, &c., 
gleaned from the leaves and smaller twigs. The 
Anumbius nests on trees, but feeds exclusively on 
the ground in open places ; while other ground- 
feeders seek their food among dead leaves in dense 
gloomy forests. Coryphistera resembles the lark 
and pipit in its habits ; Cinclodes, the wagtail ; 
Geobates a Saxicola ; Limnornis lives in reed beds 
growing in the water ; Henicornis in reed beds 
growing out of the water ; and many other ground 
species exist concealed in the grass on dry plains ; 
Homorus seeks its food by digging in the loose soil 
and dead leaves about the roots of trees ; while Geo- 
sitta, Furnarius, and Upercerthia obtain a livelihood 
chiefly by probing in the soil. It would not be pos- 
sible wdthin the present limits to mention in detail 
all the different modes of life of those species or 
groups which do not possess the tree-creeping 
habit ; after them comes a long array of genera in 
which this habit is ingrained, and in which the 
greatly modified feet and claws are suited to a 
climbing existence. As these genera comprise the 
largest half of the family, also the largest birds in 
it, we might expect to find in the tree-creeping 
the parental habit of the Dendrocolaptidae, and that 
from these tropical forest groups have sprung the 
widely-diverging thicket, ground, marsh, sea-beach, 
and rock-frequenting groups. It happens, however, 
