THRUSHES AND ALLIED SPECIES. 67 



The eyes are of moderate size ; the eye-lids feathered, with 

 a narrow bare, crenate margin. The external ear large and 

 roundish. The nostrils generally oblong, operculate in the 

 lower and fore part of the nasal depression, which is feathered. 



The legs are of moderate strength, but vary greatly in length ; 

 the tarsus compressed, covered anteriorly with seven scutella ; 

 of which the upper three are often indistinct. The toes are 

 rather strong, compressed ; the first, second, and fourth nearly 

 equal, the third much longer, and united to the fourth at the 

 base ; the claws rather long, arched, compressed, laterally 

 grooved, acute. 



The plumage is ordinary, rather blended, the feathers gene- 

 rally rounded. There is always a row of short bristle-feathers 

 along the basal margin of the upper mandible, although they 

 are so small in the Orioles that Mr Swainson erroneously gives 

 as one of the characters of that group, " the base and the gape 

 devoid of bristles." The wings are of moderate length, broad, 

 and more or less rounded, generally with nineteen quills, the 

 first very small, the third and fourth longest ; the secondaries 

 long, broad and rounded. The tail is generally of moderate 

 length, but sometimes long, and of twelve moderately strong 

 straight feathers. 



The skeleton differs very little in structure from that of the 

 Corvinae and Thremmaphilinae. The cranium is large, ovate, 

 broad and rounded behind ; the orbits very large, their septum 

 incomplete ; the jaws of moderate length and rather slender ; 

 the upper with the nasal vacuity large and elliptical, the lower 

 almost straight, with an oblong vacuity near the condyle. The 

 cervical vertebrae are generally twelve; the dorsal eight, of which 

 the anterior has only a rudimentary rib ; the united lumbar 

 and sacral ten ; the coccygeal seven. The ribs are seven, very 

 slender, depressed, the first incomplete, and, as well as the last, 

 without the posterior process, which is narrow and rather long. 

 The scapula is linear and slightly decurved ; the furcula narrow, 

 hyoid, very slender, with the curve rounded, and having a round- 

 ish or oblong thin plate projecting backwards. The coracoid 

 bones are rather slender, and diverge little. The sternum, Figs. 

 115 and 116, is of moderate length, broad, narrower anteriorly ; 



