280 BRITISH BIRDS. 
Genus MONTICOLA. 
The genus Monticola was established by Boie (Isis, 1822, p. 552), who 
indicated M. savatilis as the type. It contains the Rock-Thrushes, which 
may be distinguished from the Ground-Thrushes by the absence of the 
Geocichline pattern under the wing, from the true Thrushes by never 
having the throat streaked, and from the Ouzels by their black legs and 
bills, or, where the legs are black in the Ouzels, by having the bill less 
than ‘9 inch. From the Robins and the Redstarts and the smaller Chats 
they may be distinguished by their stout bill (‘74 or longer). From the 
larger Chats the fact that the under tail-coverts are blue or chestnut is a 
sufficient distinction. These generic distinctions are purely artificial. 
The genera Monticola, Ruticilla, Saxicola, Erithacus, and Myrmecocichla 
are all artificial ; and the eighty species which they contain really all belong 
to one genus. I have only retained them out of deference to the practice 
of ornithologists. The mania for making new genera is a great evil; and 
I have only retained the pseudo-genera in cases like the present for the 
sake of convenience, or to avoid change. 
The Rock-Thrushes, of which about ten species are known, are confined 
to the Old World, frequenting the southern half of the Palzarctic Region, 
the AAthiopian Region, and the Oriental Region, bemmg absent from the 
Australian Region. Two species range throughout South Europe to 
North China during the breeding-season. One species is resident in 
Abyssinia, and three in South Africa. Two species breed in the Himalayas, 
one of which extends also to West China. One species breeds in South- 
east Siberia and North-east China, whilst another appears to be confined 
to East China and Japan. One of the European species has without 
doubt occurred in our islands, whilst another has been included in the 
British list on unsatisfactory evidence. 
The Rock-Thrushes, although closely allied to the other Thrushes, are 
still more so both in structure and habits to the Redstarts and Chats. 
They are in fact nothing more than large Redstarts. They frequent open 
rocky country, and, like the Redstarts and the Chats, are restless, solitary 
birds. Most of the Rock-Thrushes are possessed of fair powers of song. 
Their food consists largely of insects, grubs, and worms, and also, more 
rarely, of fruit. Their nests are loosely made of rootlets, dry grasses, moss, 
hair, and feathers, and placed in holes of walls and-rocks. Their eggs are 
from four to six in number, pale greenish blue in colour, very rarely 
spotted with pale brown. 
