Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS

THE FREE-TOED PERCHING BIRDS

THE TAPACOLAS

(Family Pteroptochidm)
The final family of the superfamily Clamatores is a small one, embracing eight genera and about thirty species of mostly small, Wren-like birds, ranging in distribution from Costa Rica to Patagonia, being perhaps most abundant in Chile and Patagonia, but occurring also in the Andes of Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, where they reach elevations of nine or ten thousand feet. They are terrestrial birds mainly of skulking habits, frequenting the dense thickets and jungles and rarely taking to wing. In coloration they are largely dusky brownish or blackish, with one exception, in which the plumage is ocellated. They have short, rounded wings and mainly rather short tails which are carried in an elevated position, while the feet are exceptionally stout and the claws, especially the hind one, often very long. In the scutellation of the tarsus they agree with the Ant-birds, but in the four-notched sternum they fall next the preceding family. The bills of these birds are very peculiar in that the space between the external nostrils (mesorhinum) is greatly modified, in some cases being rounded and elongated and in others expanded into an oval shield; the nostrils are often covered by a membrane. In shape the bills may be either thin and awl-shaped or strong and thick.
In the largest genus (Scytalopus), which contains more than half of the species, the bill is awl-shaped and the tail very short, as are the plumes about the lores. The plumage is various, being largely plumbeous or blackish brown, occasionally dark or ashy gray.
In the typical genus (Pteroptochus) the bill is straight and has the operculum-covered nostrils opening by a narrow slit at its base. Of the two species, the White-necked Tapacola (P. albicollis) occurs in western Argentina and central and northern Chile, sometimes frequenting watercourses, when it may be observed running about on the stones much like a Dipper. In coloration it is the eve and the under parts chestnut-brown above, with the lores, wh hills, where scarcely another_ bird the bottom of a bush, the bubbling of water, and many defy all similes.”He was told, but did not himself observe it, that the Tapacola builds its nest at the bottom of a deep burrow. Allied to the last but differing in the shorter, more curved bill are the two species of Rhinocrypta, of which the form inhabiting western Argentina and northern Patagonia is known as the Gallito or Little Cock (R. lanceolata). About nine inches in length, it is olive-brown above, becoming reddish brown on the head and neck, while the throat and upper breast are gray, becoming pure white on the middle of the abdomen and bright chestnut on the sides. The head is conspicuously crested, and as the bird struts and runs about on the ground with the tail erect and the crest elevated, it looks very much like a small domestic fowl, whence of course its common name. Mr. Hudson speaks of it as a very common bird on the Rio Negro, frequenting thickets and making a great protest with loud, scolding notes, but keeping itself carefully concealed.”At the same time,”he adds,”it is extremely inquisitive, and no sooner does it spy an intruder in the bush than the warning note is sounded, whereupon every at a distance, when

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