234 BRITISH BIRDS. 
Genus MERULA. 
The genus Merula, though foreshadowed by Brisson, was only half 
adopted by Gerini, and dates a doubtful pedigree from 1816, when Leach, 
in his ‘ Systematic Catalogue of the Mammals and Birds in the British 
Museum,’ adopted the pree-Linnzan name of Merula nigra for the Blackbird. 
As this species is also the Turdus merula of Brisson and Linneus, there 
can be no doubt that it is the type of the genus Meruia. 
The Ouzels differ from the Ground-Thrushes in not possessing the 
peculiar wing-pattern of those birds, and from the Thrushes in having the 
adult male either quite different from the female, or without any streaks 
on the throat. 
The genus Merula contains about fifty species. The Neotropical and 
Oriental Regions contain about fifteen species each, and the Palearctic and 
Australian Regions about ten each, whilst in the Nearctic and Athiopian 
Regions the genus is unrepresented. Only two species breed in Europe 
(both of them in England); but several of the Siberian Ouzels occasionally 
wander westwards, and one of them at least has visited our shores. 
The Ouzels are most of them strictly arboreal birds in their habits, 
frequenting woods, groves, shrubberies, and well-timbered lands. They 
-are somewhat shy and retiring birds, seldom straying far from cover, and 
are more or less sociable among themselves. Amongst this group of birds 
we find the power of song most highly developed, no bird exceeding the 
typical Blackbird in the rich compass of its notes. These birds all build 
open well-constructed nests, usually made of dry grasses, twigs, moss, 
and mud, placing them in bushes, sometimes on the ground, and more 
rarely in the higher branches. Their eggs are from four to seven in 
number, bluish green of various shades in ground-colour, more or less 
richly marked with reddish brown, Their food consists of worms, grubs, 
snails, insects, fruits, and berries. 
