. Bird lore . red brown and gray birds that form such a large pro-portion of the a case of South Am-erican birds, the eyealights on the brilliantTanagers, Callistes,Trogons, Cotingas, andHummingbirds, and ig-nores all the myriad Fly-catchers, Ant-thrushes,Furnarian birds, andother dullish and nega-tive-colored , in the field, thesense of sound entersand combines with thevery interesting habitsof the more obscurespecies. I can hardlysubscribe to the popu-lar idea that tropicalbirds are as a rulebright-colored anddevoid of song afterlistening with an ap-preciative ear to themo
. Bird lore . red brown and gray birds that form such a large pro-portion of the a case of South Am-erican birds, the eyealights on the brilliantTanagers, Callistes,Trogons, Cotingas, andHummingbirds, and ig-nores all the myriad Fly-catchers, Ant-thrushes,Furnarian birds, andother dullish and nega-tive-colored , in the field, thesense of sound entersand combines with thevery interesting habitsof the more obscurespecies. I can hardlysubscribe to the popu-lar idea that tropicalbirds are as a rulebright-colored anddevoid of song afterlistening with an ap-preciative ear to themorning chorus in aMexican or SouthAmerican forest. One of the mostextensive and typicalfamilies is that of theDendrocolaptidai, orWoodhewers. Theyare, in actions, over-grown Brown Creep-ers. There are manygenera and almost endless species. As a family it is nearly as exten-sive and varied as the family of Finches, though all have a singlegeneral type of coloring that is hardly departed from. The great, Flicker-. WOODHEWER {Picolaptes lacrymiger) Impressions of the Voices of Tropical Birds 169 sized Dendrocolaptes, the tiny Xenops, and all between, are mainly wood-brown varying from rusty to olive, and streaked or not, but never boldlymarked. They are also fairly unanimous in their songs, though of coursethere is considerable variation. Most that I have heard have a harsh, raspynote of alarm or displeasure, and many species sing a loud, ringing song thatstrongly recalls our Canon Wren; tee, twee, tui, tui, tooi, tool, a descendingseries of whistles, which, pure and piercing in the lesser species, becomescoarse and Woodpeckery in the larger. There are really no fine singersin this group, although several make pleasant sounds in the spicy-scentedslashings, and all are interesting. They are rather silent birds, as a rule, and,as the family contains many rare and curious types, which are elusive andtricky, they are a never-ending source of interest and curiosity. The Woodpeckers may
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectorn
