248 SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS — PA SSEEES — OSCINES. 



ing the yellowish or buffy suffusion seen in swainsoni, being tluis like the back, or merely 

 grayer ; no biiii" ring around eye ; breast slightly if at all tinged with yellowish. Rather larger 

 than sivainsoni, about equalling miistelinus : length 7.50-8.00; extent 12.50-13.50; wing 

 ■i-.00-4.25 ; tail 3.00-3.25; bill over 0.50; average dimensions about the maxima of swainsoni. 

 Distribution and nesting the same, but breeding range more northerly(?). A weU-marked 

 variety, perhaps a distinct species. (A local race has been described as smaller, with the bill 

 usually slenderer ; Catskill and White Mts.; T. alicice hicknelli Ridgw.) 

 13. T. u. swain'soni. (To Wm. Swainson, an English naturalist.) Olive -backed Thrush. 

 (J 9 '• Above, clear olivaceous, of exactly the same shade over all the upper parts ; below, 

 white, strongly shaded with oHve-gray on the sides and flanks, the throat, breast, and sides 

 of the neck and head strongly tinged with yellowish, the fore parts, excepting the throat, 

 marked with numerous large, broad, dusky spots, which extend backward on the breast and 

 belly, there rather paler, and more like the olivaceous of the upper parts. Edges of eyelids 

 yellowish, forming a strong buff orbital ring; lores the same. Mouth yellow; bill blackish, 

 the basal half of lower mandible pale ; iris dark brown ; feet pale ashy-brown. Length of 

 ^,7.00-7.50; extent 12.00-12.50; wing 3.75-4.00; taU 2.75-3.00; bUl 0.50 ; tarsus 1.10. 

 9 averaging smaller; length 6.75; extent 11.50-12.00, etc. North America, N. to high 

 latitudes, W. to the Rocky Mts., common; migratory; breeds from New England northward. 

 Nest in bushes and low trees, thus in situation like that of the wood thrush, but no mud 

 in its composition ; eggs unlike those of mustelinus, fuscescens, and the varieties of unalascce, 

 in being freely speckled with different shades of brown on a greenish-blue ground ; size 0.90 X 

 0.66; number 4-5. 



Subfamily MIIVIIN>E: Mocking Thrushes. 



Aberrant TurdidcB, departing 

 from the prime characteristic of 

 the family in having the tarsi seu- 

 teUate in front (the scutella some- 

 times fusing, however, as in the 

 catbird), and the 1st primary, 

 though short, hardly to be calbnl 

 spurious. Wings short and round- 

 ed (for this family), about equal 

 to the tan only in Oroscoptes; 2d 

 primary shorter than the 6th. 

 Tail large and rounded or much 

 graduated, usually decidedly longer 

 than the wings. Tarsus about 

 equal to the middle toe and claw ; 

 feet stout, in adaptation to some- 

 what terrestrial life. BlU various 

 in form, usually longer or at least 

 more curved than in the true 

 Fig. 119. - Mockiiig-bird, about g nat. size. (After wUson.) thrushes; in Harporhynchus -aX- 

 taining extraordinary length and curvatxire. Birds much like overgrown wrens (with which 

 they have been associated by some) ; distinguished chiefly by greater size, different nostrils 

 and rictal bristles, and more deeply-cleft toes. As a group they are rather southern, hardly 

 passing beyond the United States : few species reaching even the Middle States, and the max- 

 imum development being in Central and South America. They are peculiar to America, 

 where they are represented by Oroscoptes, Mitnus, Harporhynchus, and five or six related 



