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OSCINES. SINGING BIRDS. - 145 
SUB-ORDER OSCINES. Sincixe Birps. 
Toes, three anterior, one behind, all at the same level, and none versatile, the 
outer anterior never entirely free to the base; tail feathers twelve; primaries, either 
nine only, or else the first is spurious or much shorter than the second, making the 
tenth; tail feathers usually twelve; tarsi feathered to the knee, the plates on the 
anterior face either fused into one or with distinct divisions, the posterior portion of 
the sides covered by one continuous plate on either side, meeting in a sharp edge 
behind, or with only a few divisions inferiorly. Occasionally, the hinder side has 
transverse plates, corresponding in number to the anterior; but there are then usually 
none on the sides. Larynx provided with a peculiar muscular apparatus for singing, 
composed of five pairs of muscles. 
Famity TURDID@®. Tue TurvsHes. 
The following characteristics of this family and its genera, represented in New 
England, are given by Professor Spencer F. Baird, in his recent ‘‘ Review of the 
Birds of North America,’ published in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collec- 
tions : — 
“Primaries ten, the first of which is either spurious or much shorter than the 
second. The billis elongated and subulate, moderately slender, and usually notched 
at tip; nostrils uncovered; the culmen moderately curved from the base, and the 
mouth well provided with bristles, except in afew cases. Usually, the scutelle 
covering the front and sides of the tarsus are fused into one continuous plate, or else 
scarcely appreciable, except on the inner edge only; in the Mocking Thrushes, they 
are, however, distinctly marked. The lateral toes are nearly equal, the outer rather 
the longer.” These general characteristics apply also to the Saxicolide, more fully 
spoken of in a succeeding page. 
The peculiar characteristics of the family Turdide are: ‘‘ Wings moderate, more 
rounded, not reaching beyond middle of the often rounded tail, and not more than 
one and a third the latter, usually more nearly equal. Spurious primary sometimes 
half the length of second quill, the second quill shorter than the fourth. In the 
closed wing, the outer secondary reaches three-fourths or more the length of longest 
primary.” 
Professor Baird divides this family into the sub-families Turdine, which have 
“tarsi covered anteriorly with a continuous plate;’’ and the imine, whose tarsi 
are scutellate anteriorly; scutelle seven. 
Sub-Family Torpinz. 
Nostrils oval; bristles along the base of the bill from gape to nostrils, those of 
rictus not reaching beyond nostrils; the loral feathers with bristly points; second 
quill longer than sixth; outer lateral toes longer; wings long. 
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