958 THICK-KNEE—THRASHER 
other genera as Falcunculus (SHRIKE), Oreeca and Eopsaltria seem to 
be nearly allied (cf. Gadow, Cat. B. Br. Mus. viii. pp. 172-227). By 
many systematists they are placed among the Lanidz ; but they seem 
to differ much in habit from the SHRIKES, of an older and more 
generalized form of which they may be survivors, and they certainly 
deserve grouping as a subfamily at least. No fewer than 12 species 
of Pachycephala and 4 of Hopsaltria occur in one part or another of 
Australia; but the latter are said by Gould (Hand-b. B. Austral. i. 
p. 292) to be “very nearly related” to the genus Petraca (WHEATEAR), 
while the former are described by him (tom. cit. p. 206) as differing 
in habit from most other insectivorous birds, ‘ particularly in their 
quiet mode of hopping about and traversing the branches of trees 
in search of larve,” caterpillars forming a large part of their food. 
The name THICKHEAD is, however, given in other parts of the 
world to very different birds, and in South Africa especially to 
(Hdicnemus capensis (DIKKoP, p. 148), the Stone-CURLEW of that 
country, and if not complimentary, it is at least not inaccurate, as is 
THICK-KNEE, absurdly applied to our own bird by Leach in 
1816 (Syst. Cat. Mamm. & B. Br. Mus. p. 28), being an abbrevia- 
tion of Pennant’s still more misleading “Thick-kneed Bustard” 
conferred by him in 1776 (Brit. Zool. ed. 4, i. p. 244). 
THISTLE-BIRD, -FINCH and -WARP, names of the Gonp- 
FINCH (p. 370), -COCK in Orkney for the Great BUNTING (p. 60). 
THRASHER, THRESHER, or THRUSHER,! names given to a 
bird well known in the eastern part of North America, the 7'urdus 
fuscus of the older and Harporhynchus fuscus of later ornithologists, 
some of whom have dissociated it altogether from the 'THRUSHES, to 
which it was long held to belong, placing it with J/imus (MOCKING- 
BIRD, pp. 582-585) among the “ 7roglodytine” (WREN), and those 
among the “ 7imeliidx,’ which is an admission of taxonomic inability. 
Valid reasons there may be for separating Harporhynchus, of which 
there are several species in North America, from the T'urdidx, and 
the osteological grounds are temperately advanced by Mr. Lucas 
(Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. xi. pp. 173-180); but little value can be 
attached to what had previously been urged as the strongest point, 
namely, that in 7wrdus, and its nearest allies, the tarsus is covered 
anteriorly with a continuous plate, while in the A/imus-group the tarsus 
is anteriorly scutellated, generally with 7 scales; for Baird (Lev. 
Am. B. p. 3) shewed that this might be an individual peculiarity, 
1 These words are doubtless derived from Turusu, if they be not corrup- 
tions of it. An esteemed American correspondent has suggested to me that 
Thrusher originated in the wish to indicate that the bird so called was bigger 
than an ordinary Thrush, of which word it might be said to be (if the expression 
be allowable) the ‘‘comparative degree.” In that case the other two must be 
regarded as corruptions. They have nothing to do with threshing. 
