VII TURDIDAE 5 I 5 



black cap or chestnut vent ; Melanoptila, however, is uniform 

 purplish- or bluish-black, Rhodinocincla rosy or rufous below in 

 the male and female respectively, with superciliary streak to 

 match. Oreoscoptes, 3Iimns, Gichllierminia, and Harporhynchus 

 often shew spots beneath and Donacobius dusky bars, Mimus 

 trifasciatus has a dark chest-band. 



The Turdidae occupy the whole globe, being characteristically, 

 though not invariably, migratory.^ Of the Turdinae, Thrushes 

 abound in the Neotropical Eegion, and if we include the 

 Ground-Thrushes are common in the Ethiopian, Indian, and 

 Australian, but the Palaearctic and Nearctic are poorly supplied : 

 Chats, Eobins, Eedstarts, Nightingales, Hedge-sparrows, and their 

 nearest allies are mainly Palaearctic, Ethiopian, and Indian ; 

 though Sialia reaches America, Pratincola Celebes, and Petroeca 

 Samoa. JVesocicJila is restricted to Tristan da Cunha, Turnagra 

 to New Zealand, Phaeornis to the Sandwich Islands ; while 

 Madagascar possesses peculiar forms both of this Sub-family and 

 of the Sylviinae. The last-named, however, are chietly Palae- 

 arctic, and visit the southern Old World in winter ; yet two species 

 of AcrocepJialus breed in Australia, 3iro and Myiomoira occupy 

 New Zealand, Tatare and Psamathia are Polynesian, one species of 

 Phylloscopus reaches Alaska, Regulus occurs thence to Panama, and 

 so forth. The Polioptilinae and Miminae inhabit North and South 

 America ; the Myiodectinae range from the more western United 

 States to Bolivia and Brazil. Of the last groups several forms are 

 confined to the Antilles, and of the Miminae three to the Galapagos. 



Thrushes inhabit wooded country, and reach an altitude of 

 twenty thousand feet in some latitudes ; they feed chiefly on the 

 ground, where they hop about scratching or searching for worms, 

 molluscs, and insects. Snails are habitually cracked on some 

 favourite stone by the Song-Thrush, and fruit is also eaten. The 

 strong rapid flight is undulating and frequently low, but flocks 

 cover vast distances on migration ; Ground - Thrushes are 

 naturally more terrestrial and resident, while the solitary Piock- 

 Thrushes haunt stony hills, rocks, and ruins. This Sub-family 

 comprises some of our very finest songsters, the Song-Thrush or 

 Mavis vying with the Nightingale, which gladdens both day and 

 night, and the Blackbird uttering delightfully mellow notes ; but 

 chirping sounds and harsher screams are common. Phaeornis 

 1 For new British species, see Saunders, Manual Brit. Birds, 2m\ edition, 1897-9. 



