KORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Family TURDIDiE. — The Thkushes. 



The Turdidce, with the Saxicolidce and Cindidw, form a group closely 

 related, by common characters, and appreciably different from the other 

 Oscines with slender bills and specially insectivorous habits, having, like 

 them, ten primaries (the first much shorter than the second, but nearly 

 always appreciable), and the nostrils uncovered. The great family of 

 Sylvicolidce, with similar characters of the bill, never present more than 

 nine primaries. The most striking of these common characters is seen 

 in the deeply cleft toes, of which the outer is united by the basal joint 

 alone to the middle toe, wliile the inner is separated almost to the very 

 base of its first joint.^ Tlie frontal feathers extend, with rare exceptions, 

 to the very nostrils. The bill is elongated and subulate, moderately slender, 

 and usually notched at tip ; the culmen moderately curved from the base, 

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

 the scutellffi covering the front and sides of tlie tarsus are fused into one 

 continuous plate, or else scarcely appreciable, except on the inner edge 

 only ; in the Mocking Thrushes they are, however, distinctly marked. The 

 lateral toes are nearly equal, the outer rather the longer. With these as 

 some of the principal characteristics, they may be distinguished from each 

 other as follows : — 



Note. — In the present work tlie length of the tkil is measured from the coccyx, inside of the skin, 

 and not, as usually the case, from the base of the quills at their insertion. The wings are measured 

 from the carpal joint, with dividers. 



1 In a perfectly fresh specimen of Turdus mustelimts, the basal half of the first phalanx of the 

 inner toe is connected with the first joint of the middle toe by a membrane which stretches 

 across to within two fifths of the end of the latter ; there appears, however, to be no ligamentous 

 adhesion. The basal joint of the outer toe is entirely adherent, and a membrane extends from 

 nearly the basal half of the second joint to the distal end of the first joint of the middle toe. 

 When this connecting membrane becomes dried the division of the toes appears considerably 

 greater. 



"When the toes are all extended in line with the tarsus, the hind claw stretches a little beyond 

 the lateral and scarcely reaches the base of the middle claw. 



The plates at the upper surface of the basal joints of the toes are quadrangular and opposite 

 each other. 



