THE THRUSHES 

 Thrush Family — Turdidce 



SIX members of the Thrush Family are more or less 

 common in the eastern United States: the Robin, the 

 Bluebird, the Wood Thrush, the Hermit Thrush, the Olive- 

 backed Thrush, and the Veery. The Gray-cheeked and 

 BicknelFs thrushes are not so widely known. The Rus- 

 set-backed Thrush is the western representative of the 

 Olive-back. 



The Oven-bird, or Golden-crowned Thrush, and the 

 Water-thrushes are not thrushes at all, but warblers, 

 though they resemble thrushes in having brown backs and 

 light spotted breasts, and in being dwellers of the woods. 

 The Brown Thrasher, sometimes wrongly called the 

 Brown Thrush, also has points of resemblance — a speckled 

 breast and bright brown back — ^but he is one of the Mimidae 

 or Mockingbird Family. 



The breasts of young robins and the backs of baby 

 bluebirds are spotted, showing their family relationship. 

 Both robins and bluebirds have voices that possess a qual- 

 ity for which our thrushes are noted. I have heard the 

 English thrush, famed in poetry. I consider its song in- 

 ferior in quality of tone to those of our wood and hermit- 

 thrushes, and veery; it strongly resembles that of our 

 thrasher. 



The true thrushes of our woods have backs of leaf- 

 brown, varying in hue from bright russet to dull olive. 



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