THE THRUSHES 



The Thrushes are another somewhat hetero- 

 geneous group whose limits are by no means easily 

 defined, and concerning which taxonomists express 

 considerable diversity of opinion. There can be no 

 doubt whatever that the Thrushes are closely allied 

 to the Warblers, and also to the Flycatchers. From 

 the former group, as has already been remarked, 

 they differ morphologically in having a spotted 

 nestling plumage — a fact which unquestionably 

 indicates an inferior degree of organization, and also 

 a strong affinity with the latter group. Within this 

 group are included species which have very popularly 

 been supposed to belong to the Warblers. These 

 are the Robins, the Nightingales, the Accentors, 

 and the Redstarts. In the present state of our 

 knowledge it is quite impossible to give even the 

 approximate number of species in this family ; 

 but if we restrict it to about the same limits 

 as were assigned by Seebohm it cannot number 

 much less than two hundred and sixty species and 

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