INSESSORES I TURDIDjE. l6/ 



lidae or Finch Family, Icteridae or Blackbird Family, and 

 Corvidae or Crow Family. 



TURDID^E, OR THRUSH FAMILY. This Family com- 

 prises birds with the bill notched near the tip, wings 

 rather long, . primaries ten, of which the first is very 

 short, the second nearly equal to the longest ; tarsi usu- 

 ally rather long, and mainly without scutellae, the lateral 

 toes about equal, and the basal joint of the middle toe 

 united by its basal two-thirds to the outer, and by its 

 basal half to the inner toe. 



The Genus Turdus has the bill shorter than the head 

 and stout, culmen gently curved from the base, tarsi 

 longer than the middle toe, lateral toes nearly equal, but 

 the outer one longer, the wings pointed and longer than 

 the tail, which is nearly even, or slightly emarginate. 



The Wood Thrush, T. mustelinus, Gm., of the United 

 States east of the Missouri and southward to Guatemala, 

 is eight and one tenth inches long, the wing four and a 

 quarter inches ; the color above clear cinnamon-brown, 

 the top of the head more rufous, and more olivaceous on 

 the rump and tail ; the un- Fig. 104. 



der parts are clear white, 

 sometimes tinged with buff 

 before, and thickly marked 

 with sub-triangular sharp- 

 ly-defined spots of black- 

 ish. The sides of the head 

 are dark brown streaked 

 with white, the legs yel- 

 low, bill brOWn except itS Wood Thrush, T. mustelinus, Gm. 



yellow base beneath. The nest is built in a laurel, or 

 other low shrub, and composed of leaves, grass, and mud, 

 lined with fibrous roots ; eggs four to five, of a uniform 

 light blue. ^The Wood Thrush delights in deep shady 

 glens where there is a brook or little stream, and in thick 



