Drymornis bridgesi, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 67; White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 613 (Catamarca); Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 20 (Entrerios). Nasica gracilirostris, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 466 (Rio Quinto).
Description.—Above and below brown, brightest on the rump, and palest beneath; long superciliaries extending down the neck, and a mystacal stripe formed of white spots with faint black edgings; wing-feathers blackish; tail chestnut; on the throat a broad white band extending to the breast; breast and belly marked with large oblong white spots, which are margined with narrow black edgings; under wing-coverts and inner margins of secondaries bright cinnamon; bill and feet horn-colour: whole length 12·10 inches, wing 5·6, tail 4·6. Female similar.
Hab. North and West Argentina.
Eyton, when he described this species from Bridges’s specimens, gave its habitat as Bolivia. It may inhabit the southern part of that Republic, but it is more probable that Bridges’s examples were obtained in Northern Argentina, which he likewise visited. Bridges’s Wood-hewer is the only member of its genus, and is one of the largest of the whole family Dendrocolaptidæ, measuring some 13 or 14 inches in length, inclusive of the great curved beak. Although found throughout the northern portion of the Argentine Republic, its habits are as yet imperfectly known, but the following extracts show that they must be very interesting, and that the bird is remarkably versatile. Mr. Barrows writes:—“These birds are somewhat gregarious, being oftenest seen in small parties of six to ten. They sometimes cling against the bark of a tree in the manner of Woodpeckers, but also spend much of their time on the ground. I think they use their curved bill much oftener for probing in the ground than for searching the bark of trees, as many of those shot had the base of the bill and the frontal feathers plastered with mud. In the stomach of the first one killed I found the silken sac, three fourths of an inch in diameter, or the eggs of a large spider, which makes holes ten or twelve inches deep in the hard soil everywhere.”
White obtained examples of this species at Catamarca, and also notices its strangely contrasted habits. He writes:—“The cry of this bird is much the same as that of a Woodpecker, and it clings to the algarroba trees in a similar way; but in the afternoon it is seen scattered about on the sandy ground in the pursuit of insects.”
[219.] XIPHOCOLAPTES ALBICOLLIS (Vieill.).
(WHITE-THROATED WOOD-HEWER.)
Xiphocolaptes albicollis, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 68; White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 613 (Misiones).
Description.—Above, head black, with clear whitish-yellow shaft-spots; lores and long superciliaries white; neck, back, and upper wing-coverts olive-brown; rump and upper tail-coverts washed with bright chestnut; wing-feathers dark chestnut, the outer webs glossed with olivaceous; tail chestnut; beneath pale olive-brown, buffy white on the throat and with similar shaft-spots on the breast; feathers of the belly and under tail-coverts transversely barred with black; under wing-coverts cinnamomeous yellow barred with black; bill and feet black: whole length 12·0 inches, wing 5·4, tail 4·8. Female similar.
Hab. Brazil and N. Argentina.