114 THRUSHES. 



stone, at the same time frequently jerking and spreading out their tail like a 

 fan. They live chiefly on small insects." 



To this family likewise belong the Pipits, or TitlingS as they are some- 

 times called {Anthiis). These birds inhabit most parts of the world : some 

 are usually found on rocky and open places near the sea-shore, while others 

 prefer mountains, heaths, marshes, and open cultivated places. Some species 

 are migratory, passing northward to spend the summer months, and return- 

 ing to more temperate regions for the winter, while others remain stationary 

 throughout the year. They usually frequent the ground, on which they run 

 v/ith considerable rapidity, but often take short, jerking flights. Their food 

 consists of small insects, larva;, and w^orms. During the spring these birds 

 will often rise with a tremulous and rapid motion of their wings to a great 

 elevation in the air, and then commence their song, at the conclusion of which 

 they descend, with motionless wings and expanded tail, in a gradually slanting 

 direction towards the earth. Their nest is either placed on the ground, under 

 the shelter of a tuft of herbage, or on a ledge of rock: it is composed of dry 

 grass intermixed with stalks of plants, and lined with finer grasses and hair. 

 The eggs are usually six in number. 



FAMILY II. 

 THE THRUSHES. TURDID^. 



General Characteristics. — Bill of various lengths, and more or less strong, with 

 the culmen generally keeled, curved, and the sides compressed to the tip, which is 

 emarginated ; the nostrils lateral, basal, and generally protected by a membranous 

 scale; the wings more or less long, and rounded or pointed; the tail mostly of 

 moderate length; the tarsi more or less short, and usually covered wilh transverse 

 scales ; the toes of various lengths, and the outer toe generally longer than the inner 

 one. 



These birds are distributed in all parts of the world ; indeed, so 

 numerous are their different forms, that every country and almost 

 every district may be said to have its own peculiar species, They 

 are generally to be met with in shady thickets of moderate ex- 

 tent, or in the immediate vicinity of water ; some seem specially 

 to prefer umbrageous plains, others the woods upon the mountain- 

 side, while others again are only to be found amid rocks and stony 

 places. The fruitful and shady pastures and the most arid deserts 

 are equally selected for the residence of certain races, nor are the 

 inmost recesses of the thickest forests without appropriate inha- 

 bitants belonging to this extensive family. Equally remarkable 

 is the pertinacity with which they keep to their favourite habitat, 

 from whence nothing short of urgent want of food will drive them 



