reaching to beyond middle of subterminal phalanx of middle toe, the inner toe conspicuously shorter, reaching (without claw) only to subterminal articulation of middle toe; hallux longer than inner but shorter than outer toe; claws moderate in size and curvature to rather large and strongly curved, much compressed, that of the hallux shorter than the digit.
Coloration. — Plain brownish, the rump and upper tail-coverts usually more rufescent, sometimes bright or deep chestnut; under parts paler than upper, the throat sometimes gray or whitish or squamated. Sexes alike.
Nidification. — Nest (of S. umbretta) composed of leaf-ribs placed in a rounded chamber at the end of a gallery in the ground. Eggs white.[1]
Range. — Southern Mexico to Cayenne, Argentina, and Peru. (About twelve species.)
KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OP SCLERURUS.
a. Lower rump and upper tail-coverts chestnut, distinctly different from color of back.
- b. Chin and throat whitish or grayish, distinctly different from color of chest.
- c. Chin and throat dull white or grayish white, the feathers margined or tipped with dusky. (Southern Brazil.)
Sclerurus umbretta (extralimital).[2]
- cc. Chin dull white deepening into gray on throat, the feathers without distinct, if any, darker margin or tip.
- d. Back, etc., brown; chest tawny brown or dull rusty. (Sclerurus albigularis.)
- e. Back, etc., olive-brown; chest tawny brown; throat grayish white, deepening into pale gray on lower portion. (Venezuela; Tobago.)
- d. Back, etc., brown; chest tawny brown or dull rusty. (Sclerurus albigularis.)
- cc. Chin dull white deepening into gray on throat, the feathers without distinct, if any, darker margin or tip.
Sclerurus albigularis albigularis (extralimital).[3]
- ee. Back, etc., burnt-umber brown; chest dull rusty; throat smoke gray. (Northeastern Colombia.)
Sclerurus albigularis propinquus (extralimital).[4]
- ↑ Goeldi, Ibis, 1896, 305.
- ↑ M[yiothera] umbretta Lichtenstein, Verz. Doubl., 1823, 43 (Bahia, Brazil). — Myioturdus umbretta Ménétriés, Mem. de l'Acad. St. Petersb., ser. 6, Sci. Nat., i, 1835, 468 (Bahia). — F[ormicarius] umbretta Gray, Gen. Birds, i, 1840, 211. — Sclerurus umbretta Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867, 574 (lower Amazon Valley); Burmeister, Syst. Ueb. Th. Bras., iii, 1856, 45; Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xii, 1890, 22 (monogr.); Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xv, 1890, 114. — Sclerurus caudacutus umbretta Hellmayr, Novit. Zool., xiv, 1907, 56 (crit.). — Oxypyga scansor Ménétriés, Mem. de l'Acad. St. Petersb., ser. 6, Sci. Nat., i, 1835, 520, pi. 11 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). — T[inactor] fuscus Maximilian, Beitr. Naturg. Bras., iii, 1831, 1106, part (female only).
- ↑ Sclerurus albigularis "Sw[ainson] Braz. B. t. 78" Bonaparte, Consp. Av., i, 1850, 210 (nomen nudum); Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1868, (pub. April, 1869), 630 (Venezuela; diagnosis); Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xv, 1890, 114, part (excl. syn. S. canigularis). — Sclerurus albogularis Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xii, 1889 (1890), 24 (monogr.; Venezuela; Tobago).
- ↑ Sclerurus albigularis propinquus Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., xiii, Nov. 11, 1899, 99 (Chirua, Santa Marta, Colombia, 7,000 ft.; coll. E. A. and O. Bangs).
