206 BRITISH BIRDS. 
Genus TURDUS. 
The genus Turdus was established by Linnzus in 1766, in his ‘ Systema 
Naturee,’i. p. 291, and 7. viscivorus has by common consent been accepted 
asthe type. It contains the true Thrushes, which may be distinguished from 
the Ground-Thrushes by not having the peculiar Geocichline pattern on the 
wing, and from the Ouzels by having the throat streaked and the sexes 
alike. 
The true Thrushes are most abundant in the Neotropical Region, whence 
about five and twenty species have been described, and in the Aithiopian 
Region, where about a dozen species are resident. Half a dozen species or 
more are peculiar to the Nearctic Region, whilst in the Palearctic Region 
only five species occur, of which two are residents in our islands and two 
winter visitors. 
The 'Thrushes are closely connected with the Ouzels. The haunts they 
affect are almost entirely arboreal; and in their habits they do not differ 
from the Ouzels. ‘They are even more sociable than the preceding group 
of birds. Like them they possess great powers of song, being probably 
amongst the finest songsters in the world. They all build open nests, well 
made and compact, of dry grass, sticks, moss, and mud, and place them 
usually in bushes, sometimes high up in the branches of trees, and more 
rarely on the ground. Their eggs are from four to six in number, varying 
from clear bluish green to green in ground-colour, spotted and mottled 
with various shades of brown. Their food also does not differ from that of 
the Ouzels. 
