American creepers (Dendrocolaptidae), together with a large proportion of the wood-warblers (Mniotiltidae), the finches, the wrens, and some other groups.    From Wordnik.com.  [Darwinism (1889)] Reference

Dendrocolaptidae, and that from these tropical forest groups have sprung the widely-diverging thicket, ground, marsh, sea-beach, and rock-frequenting groups.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Naturalist in La Plata] Reference

Dendrocolaptidae are the first in combining to act in concert, and that the birds of other families follow their march and associate with them, knowing from experience that a rich harvest may be thus reaped.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Naturalist in La Plata] Reference

In like manner, the homely Dendrocolaptidae possess the genius for building, and an account of one of these small birds without its nest would be like a biography of Sir Christopher Wren that made no mention of his works.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Naturalist in La Plata] Reference

There is, in the Dendrocolaptidae, a splendid harvest for future observers of the habits of South American birds: some faint idea of its richness may perhaps be gathered from the small collection of the most salient facts known to us about them I have brought together and put in order in this place.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Naturalist in La Plata] Reference

The explanation of the most striking features of the Dendrocolaptidae, their monotonous brown plumage, diversity of structure, versatile habits, and the marvellous development of the nest-making instinct which they exhibit is to be found, it appears to me, in the fact that they are the most defenceless of birds.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Naturalist in La Plata] Reference

If "colour is ever tending to increase and to appear where it is absent," as Dr. Wallace believes, then we ought to find it varying in the direction of greater brightness in some species in a family so numerous and variable as the Dendrocolaptidae, however feeble and in need of a protective colouring these birds may be in a majority of pases.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Naturalist in La Plata] Reference

"similar functional requirements frequently lead to the development of similar structures in animals which are otherwise very distinct" -- as we see in the tubular tongue in honey-eaters and humming birds -- we might have expected to find in the Dendrocolaptidae a better imitation of the woodpecker in so variable an organ as the beak, if not in the tongue.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Naturalist in La Plata] Reference