GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. __________________________________/\__________________________________ / \ NEOTROPICAL| NEARCTIC |PALÆARCTIC | ETHIOPIAN | ORIENTAL | AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS. -----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ | | | | | 1. 2. 3 -- |-- -- -- --|-- -- -- --|-- -- -- --|-- -- -- --|-- -- -- -- | | | | | The Dendrocolaptidæ, or American Creepers, are curious brown-coloured birds with more or less rigid tail feathers, strictly confined to the continental Neotropical region, and very numerous in its south-temperate extremity. They are divided by Messrs. Sclater and Salvin into five sub-families, to which I shall confine my remarks on their distribution. The details of the numerous genera, being only interesting to specialists, will be given in the table of genera of the Neotropical region. No less than 13 of the genera are confined to South-Temperate America and the High Andes; 14 are restricted to Tropical South America, while not one is peculiar to Tropical North America, and only 15 of the 43 genera extend into that sub-region, showing that this is one of the pre-eminently South American groups. Sub-family I. FURNARIINÆ (8 genera, 30 species). Ranges over all South America, 4 genera and 18 species being restricted to the temperate sub-region; one species is found in the Falkland Islands. Sub-family II. SCLERURINÆ (1 genus, 6 species). Brazil to Guiana, Columbia, and north to Mexico. Sub-family III. SYNALLAXINÆ (12 genera, 78 species). Ranges from Patagonia to Mexico; 7 genera and 28 species are confined {296}to the temperate sub-region; species occur in the islands of Mas-a-fuera, Trinidad, and Tobago. Sub-family IV. PHILYDORINÆ (6 genera, 35 species). Confined to Tropical America from Brazil to Mexico; 4 genera and 8 species occur in Tropical North America. Sub-family V. DENDROCOLAPTINÆ (14 genera, 59 species). Ranges from Chili and La Plata to Mexico; only 3 species occur in the South Temperate sub-region, while 9 of the genera extend into Tropical North America. Two of the continental species occur in the island of Tobago, which, together with Trinidad, forms part of the South American rather than of the true Antillean sub-region. FAMILY 45.--FORMICARIIDÆ. (32 Genera, 211 Species.)