This species is found throughout the Argentine country, in dry, open situations, abounding with a scanty tree and bush vegetation.
[ Suborder III. TRACHEOPHONÆ.]
[ Fam. XVII. DENDROCOLAPTIDÆ, or WOOD-HEWERS.]
The Dendrocolaptidæ are an important family in American Ornithology, numbering some 220 species, and distributed in greater or less abundance over every part of the Neotropical Region from Mexico to Patagonia. Within Argentine limits 46 species occur.
While green is the characteristic colour of the Tyrannidæ, brown is the favoured hue of the Dendrocolaptidæ, both the forest-loving and campos-frequenting members of the group being nearly without exception arrayed in various shades of that sombre colour, to which a ferruginous tail is a very frequent appendage.
The Dendrocolaptidæ fall into four subfamilies, all of which have representatives in Argentina. These are (1) the Furnariinæ, or Oven-birds, which are terrestrial in habits and have their feet adapted for this mode of life; (2) the Sclerurinæ, or Leaf-scrapers, known by their spiny tail, which keep to the ground inside the forests; (3) the Synallaxinæ, or Sharp-tails, mostly bush-frequenting birds; and (4) the Dendrocolaptinæ, or Wood-hewers, which have the habits of our Creepers (Certhia), and use their tail as a climbing-organ. All the members of this great family feed exclusively on insects.
Subfam. I. FURNARIINÆ.
[176.] GEOSITTA CUNICULARIA (Vieill.).
(COMMON MINER.)
Geositta cunicularia, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 405 (Mendoza, Paraná); Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 61; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 178 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 395 (Chupat); Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. viii. p. 203 (Entrerios). Geositta tenuirostris, White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 609 (Salta).