vil TURDIDAE 515 
black cap or chestnut vent; J/elanoptila, however, is uniform 
purplish- or bluish-black, Rhodinocincla rosy or rufous below in 
the male and female respectively, with superciliary streak to 
match. Oreoscoptes, Mimus, Cichlherminia, and Harporhynchus 
often shew spots beneath and Donacobius dusky bars, Jimus 
trifasciatus has a dark chest-band. 
The Turdidae occupy the whole globe, being characteristically, 
though not invariably, migratory.’ Of the Turdinae, Thrushes 
abound in the Neotropical Region, and—dif we include the 
Ground-Thrushes—are common in the Ethiopian, Indian, and 
Australian, but the Palaearctic and Nearctic are poorly supplied: 
Chats, Robins, Redstarts, Nightingales, Hedge-sparrows, and their 
nearest. allies are mainly Palaearctic, Ethiopian, and Indian ; 
though Stalia reaches America, Pratincola Celebes, and Petroeca 
Samoa. Nesocichla is restricted to Tristan da Cunha, Zurnagra 
to New Zealand, Phaeornis to the Sandwich Islands; while 
Madagascar possesses peculiar forms both of this Sub-family and 
of the Sylviinae. The last-named, however, are chiefly Palae- 
arctic, and visit the southern Old World in winter ; yet two species 
of Acrocephalus breed in Australia, Miro and Myiomoira occupy 
New Zealand, Vatare and Psamathia are Polynesian, one species of 
Phylloscopus reaches Alaska, Regulus occurs thence to Panama, and 
so forth. The Pohoptilinae and Miminae inhabit North and South 
America; the Myiodectinae range from the more western United 
States to Bolivia and Brazil. Of the last groups several forms are 
confined to the Antilles, and of the Miminae three to the Galapagos. 
Thrushes inhabit wooded country, and reach an altitude of 
twenty thousand feet in some latitudes; they feed chiefly on the 
ground, where they hop about scratching or searching for worms, 
molluses, and insects. Snails are habitually cracked on some 
favourite stone by the Song-Thrush, and fruit is also eaten. The 
strong rapid flight is undulating and frequently low, but. flocks 
cover vast distances on migration; Ground - Thrushes are 
naturally more terrestrial and resident, while the solitary Rock- 
Thrushes haunt stony hills, rocks, and ruins. This Sub-family 
comprises some of our very finest songsters, the Song-Thrush or 
Mavis vying with the Nightingale, which gladdens both day and 
night, and the Blackbird uttering delightfully mellow notes; but 
chirping sounds and harsher screams are common. Phacornis 
1 For new British species, see Saunders, Manual Brit. Birds, 2nd edition, 1897-9. 
