5Y 



resemblance in color to the New World Orioles, but the resem- 

 blance scarcely extends further. About forty species are recog- 

 nized, which are variously distributed from Africa to Australia 

 (see Case T). The color of most of the species is golden-yellow 

 and black. 



The so-called family TimeliidcE forms a large assemblage of Old 

 World birds, composed of a great variety of more or less Thrush- 

 like and Wren-like forms, including the Bull-bulls, Babbling 

 Thrushes, etc. They are mostly of rather plain colors, but some 

 are strikingly marked with contrasting tints. Such diverse forms 

 have been combined in this extensive and heterogeneous group 

 that it has often been termed the "ornithological waste-basket," 

 in which are thrown such genera of Song-birds as are not easily 

 arranged elsewhere, and do not seem to present sufficient differ- 

 ences to warrant their separation into groups of family value. 

 The birds thus associated are especially numerous in India and 

 Africa (see Case T). 



The great family of the Thrushes {Turdidce), as at present con- 

 stituted, includes several groups formerly regarded as families, 

 and by some writers still so regarded ; yet these different groups 

 are found to so gradually merge into each other that they can 

 scarcely be regarded as distinct families. These groups include 

 the Old World Warblers (subfamily Sylviince), the Stonechats and 

 and Bluebirds [Saxicolitice), the Solitaires {Myiadestincz), and the 

 Thrushes i)roper (Turdina:). The true Thrushes are cosmopolitan 

 in distribution, and number about one hundred and fifty species 

 (Cases B, F, and T). Two of the three leading genera are well 

 illustrated by our Robin {Meru/a migratoria) and Wood Thrush 

 {Turdiis mustelinus) (Case B, and Groups Nos. i, 2, and 20). The 

 Ground-Thrushes (genus Geocichla) — some forty species — are all 

 Old World, and most numerous in the East Indies and Australia 

 (Case T). The Solitaires are largely West Indian (Case F), but 

 have a single representative in the western United States. The 

 true Stonechats (genus Saxicold) are with one exception, the 

 Wheatear, all Old World and especially African (see Case T). 

 Our familiar Bluebirds (genus Sialia — see Group No. 19) are near 

 allies of the Stonechats ; the three species are all North American 

 (Case B). . Quite nearly related to the latter are the English 



