]:^OPvTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Family TURDID^. — The Thrushes. 



The Tnrdklcr, with the Saxicolidm and Cinclidm, form a group closely 

 related, by common cliaracters, and appreciably different from the other 

 Oscincs with slender lidls and specially insectivorons habits, having, like 

 them, ten primaries (the first much shorter than tlie second, Init nearly 

 always appreciable), aud tlie nostrils uncovered. The great family of 

 Sylvicolida, with similar characters of the bill, never present more than 

 nine primaries. The most striking of these common cliaracters is seen 

 in the deeidy cleft toes, of which the outer is united by the basal joint 

 alone to the middle toe, wliUe the inner is separated almost to the very 

 base of its first joint.' The frontal feathers extend, with rare exceptions, 

 to the very nostrils. Tlie bill is elongated and subulate, moderately slender, 

 and usually notclied at tip ; the culmen moderately curved from the base, 

 and the mouth well provided with bristles, except in a few cases. Usually 

 the scutella? covering the front and sides of the tarsus are fused into one 

 continuous plate, or else scarcely appreciable, except on the inner edge 

 only ; in the blocking Thrushes they are, however, distinctly marked. The 

 lateral toes are nearly equal, the outer rather the longer. With these as 

 some of the jirincipal characteristics, tliey may be distinguished from each 

 other as follows : — 



Note. — In tlie pre^piit work the length of the tail is measured from the coeeyx, inside of the skin, 

 and not, as usually the case, from the base of the (luiUs at their insertion. The wings are measured 

 from the carpal joint, with dividers. 



^ In a perfectly fresh specimen of Tiin/iis miiMeUnns, the liasal half of the first phalanx of the 

 inner toe is connected with the first joint of the middle toe by a membrane which stretches 

 across to within two fifths of the end of the latter ; there appears, however, to be no ligamentous 

 adhesion. The basal joint of the outer toe is entirely adlierent, and a membrane extends from 

 nearly the basal half of the second joint to the di.stal end of the first joint of the middle toe. 

 When this connecting membrane becomes dried the division of the toes appears considerably 

 greater. 



When the toes are all extended in lini> with the tarsus, the hind claw sti'etches a little beyond 

 the lateral and scarcely reaches the ba.se of the midclle claw. 



The plates at the upper surface of the basal joints of the toes are quadrangular and opposite 

 ea(di other. 



