(NARROW-BILLED WOOD-HEWER.)
+Picolaptes angustirostris+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 69; _White,
P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 433 (Cordova). +Lepidocolaptes atripes+,
_Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 21 (Entrerios).
_Description._--Above, head and neck blackish, with oblong whitish
shaft-spots on the crown and neck; broad superciliaries white,
extending nearly to the back and broken at their lower ends into
shaft-spots; rest of upper surface dull brown, brighter on the
rump; wing-feathers pale obscure chestnut; outer webs and broad tips
of primaries blackish; tail chestnut; beneath white, clearer on the
throat; sides of breast and belly thickly marked with faint blackish
stripes; under wing-coverts cinnamon; bill pale horn-colour; feet
grey: whole length 8·2 inches, wing 3·8, tail 2·5. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Paraguay and Argentina.
This is the only member of the genus _Picolaptes_ as yet met with
within the limits of the Argentine Republic. Azara found it abundant in
Paraguay, and on this account named it the Common Climber, "_Trepador
comun_." In Buenos Ayres it is a summer visitant, appearing at the end
of September. It is a solitary bird, never seen away from the woods, and
invariably utters a loud melancholy cry when passing from one tree to
another. It always alights on the trunk close to the ground, clinging to
the bark in a vertical position, supported by the tail, and with head
thrown far back in order to give free play to the extremely long beak.
Having thus alighted, it progresses upwards by short hops, exploring the
crevices in the wood for small insects, until it reaches the branches,
when it flies off to the next tree.
Fam. XVIII. FORMICARIIDÆ, or ANT-BIRDS.
The Formicariidæ, or Ant-birds, are another very important constituent
of the Neotropical Avifauna, but are less generally diffused than the
Dendrocolaptidæ, the greater number of the forms being restricted to the
hot forests of South and Central America. In the Argentine Republic we
meet with only four species of the widely-spread genus _Thamnophilus_,
and of them only one appears to extend as far south as Buenos Ayres.