The Woodhewer Family. 247 
tlieir existence a hard one. It has been with these 
birds as with human beings, bred in misfortune’s 
school,” and subjected to keen competition. One 
of their most striking characteristics is a methodical, 
plodding, almost painful diligence of manner while 
seeking their food, so that when viewed side by 
side with other species, rejoicing in a gayer plumage 
and stronger flight, they seem like sober labourers 
that never rest among holiday people bent only on 
enjoyment. That they are able not only to main- 
tain their existence, but to rise to the position of a 
dominant family, is due to an intelligence and 
adaptiveness exceeding that of other kinds, and 
which has been strengthened, and perhaps directly 
results from the hard conditions of their life. 
How great their a.daptiveness and variability 
must be when we find that every portion of the 
South American continent is "occupied by them; 
for there is really no climate, and no kind of soil or 
vegetrdion, which does not possess its appropriate 
species, modified in colour, form, and habits to suit 
the surrounding conditions. In the tropical region, 
so rich in bird life of all kinds, in forest, marsh, 
and savanna, they are everywhere abundant — food 
is plentiful there ; but when we go to higher 
elevations and cold sterile deserts, where their 
companion families of the tropics dwindle away and 
disappear, the creepers are still present, for they 
are evidently able to exist where other kinds would 
starve. On the stony plateaus of the Andes, and 
on the most barren spots in Patagonia, where no 
other bird is seen, there are small species of Synal- 
laxis, which, in their obscure colour and motions 
