1S6 PASSERES. TURDID^. 



of the live bird, December 24th, 1760. It was very 

 tame, and so hungry that it picked some feathers 

 out of a dead bird, and ate them. It weighed some- 

 what less than two drachms." 



Fam.— TURDID^.— (r/ie Thrushes.) 

 HOPPING DICK* 



Ttvopentii/ Chick. 

 Merula leiLCogenys. 



Turdus leucogenys, Gmel. 

 Merula saltator. Hill. 



The birds on which the peasantry in any coun- 

 try have conferred homely abbreviations of human 

 names, are, I think, only such as have something 

 lively and entertaining in their manners. Exam- 

 ples of familiar birds will at once occur to an 

 English reader, and the subject of the present note 

 is by no means an exception to the rule. He is 

 one of the liveliest of our Jamaican birds : in woody 

 places his clear whistle perpetually strikes the ear 

 of the passenger, as he sits among the close foliage, 



* Length 9^ inches, expanse 1 4-g, flexure 5, tail 3f , rictus 1;^, tarsus 

 1^, middle toe 1-j^. Irides dull orange ; beak bright orange, blackish 

 at tip ; feet deep fulvous. Whole upper parts greyish-black ; crown 

 and tail deep black ; wing-quills brownish-black ; the innermost two of 

 the greater coverts have the edge of the outer web pure white. Under 

 parts ashy-grey, silky ; darkest on throat ; chin usually white ; medial 

 line of belly white ; under tail- coverts black, tipped with white. Sexes 

 exactly alike. 



