THE WORLD'S BIRDS. 



117 



England, which has the head metaUic sea-green, under- 

 parts purple, and lower back flame - colour. The 

 Scarlet Tanager {Rhamphocoelus hrasilius), also South 

 American, is as large as a Lark, velvety-scarlet with 

 black wings and tail in the male, brown in the female ; 

 it is also often imported and has laid and partly reared 

 young in England. The Maroon Tanager {R. jacapa), 

 much darker red in the male, is a well-known and 

 common bird in South America, as also is the Blue 

 (Tanagra episcopus), pale lavender and blue in both 

 sexes. The migratory North American Pyranga rubra 

 and P. erythromelas are well known as " Summer 

 Red-birds"; their females are olive-green, and the 

 males assume this colour after breeding, for a time. 



Tapaculos {Pteroptochince) inhabit South America ; 

 they have very strong coarse feet, much like the Lyre- 

 Bird's on a small scale, and fairly stout and short 

 beaks, with the nostrils overhung by a scale on the 

 inner side. Their tails are rather short, and they are 

 great skulkers, but very noisy. Their shanks have 

 several scales up the back. This distinguishes them 

 from the larger Wrens, to which they bear some resem- 

 blance in form and habits. Their plumage is dull. 



Thrushes (Turdince) are a very numerous and widely- 

 spread group, found almost everywhere ; many are 

 highly migratory ; they present no remarkable pecu- 

 liarity of form, the bill being slight and of medium 

 length, as are also, as a rule, the wings, tail and legs. 

 The head is never crested, nor is the plumage glossy. 

 The eggs vary much ; the young are usually spotted with 

 buff. The typical species, to which the name Thrush 

 or Ouzel is generally restricted in popular language, 

 are birds of fair size for this family ; the smaller kinds 

 are grouped as Robins, Redstarts and Chats. The 

 larger forms have the widest distribution, none of the 

 Redstarts, for instance, occurring outside the Old 

 World, while only one Chat, the familiar Wheatear 



