OSCINES. SINGING BIRDS. 145 



SUB-ORDER OSCINES. Singing Birds. 



Toes, three anterior, one behind, all at the same level, and none versatile, the 

 outer anterior never entirely free to the base ; tail feathers twelve; primaries, either 

 nine only, or else the first is spurious or much shorter than the second, making the 

 tenth; tail feathers usually twelve; tarsi feathered to the knee, the plates on the 

 anterior face either fused into one or with distinct divisions, the posterior portion of 

 the sides covered b}' one continuous plate on either side, meeting in a sharp edge 

 behind, or with only a few divisions inferiorly. Occasionallv, the hinder side has 

 transverse plates, corresponding in number to the anterior; but there are then usually 

 none on the sides. Larynx provided with a peculiar muscular apparatus for singing, 

 composed of live pairs of muscles. 



Family TURDIDiE. The Thrushes. 



The following characteristics of this family and its genera, represented in New 

 England, are given by Professor Spencer F. Baird, in his recent " Eeview of the 

 Birds of North America," published in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collec- 

 tions: — 



"Primaries ten, the first of which is either spurious or much shorter than the 

 second. The bill is elongated and subulate, moderately slender, and usually notched 

 at tip; nostrils uncovered; the culmen moderately curved from the base, and the 

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

 covering the fi-ont and sides of the tarsus are fused into one continuous plate, or else 

 scarcely appreciable, except on the inner edge only ; in the Mocking Thrushes, they 

 are, however, distinctlj^ marked. The lateral toes are nearly equal, the outer rather 

 the longer." These general characteristics apply also to the Saxicolidce, more fully 

 spoken of in a succeeding page. 



The peculiar characteristics of the family Turdidce are: "Wings moderate, more 

 rounded, not reaching beyond middle of the often rounded tail, and not more than 

 one and a third the latter, usualh- more nearly equal. Spurious primary sometimes 

 half the length of second quill, the second quill shorter than the fourth. In the 

 closed wing, the outer secondary reaches three-fourths or more the length of longest 

 primary." 



Professor Baird divides this family into the sub-families Turdinm, which have 

 "tarsi covered anteriorly with a continuous plate;" and the il/j/«*«cB, whose tarsi 

 are scutellate anteriorly ; scutelliB seven. 



Sub-Family TuRDiNiE. 



Nostrils oval; bristles along the base of the bill from gape to nostrils, those of 

 rictus not reaching beyond nostrils; the loral feathers with bristly points; second 

 quill longer than sixth; outer lateral toes longer; wings long. 



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