372 



A VES ORDER PASSERIFOKMES. 



me 



Mocking- Birds. 

 Family 

 Mimidce. 



Fig. 113. THE MOCKING-BIRD 

 (Mimus polyyloUus). 



The mocking-birds &re an American family, of which Mimus polyyloUus 

 and the cat-bird (Galeoscoptes 

 carolinensis) are prominent ex- 

 amples. The Mimidto are found 

 throughout temperate North 

 America, Central America, the 

 West Indian islands, and the 

 greater part of South America, even to Chili, 

 Patagonia, and the Galapagos Islands. Their 

 powers of song and mimicry are proverbial. 



The Timeliidce are short- winged, non -migra- 



tory birds, with the habits of thrushes and the 



rictal bristles of flycatchers. 



The Babblers. They are mostly ground birds, 



Family many of them, like Grateropus, 



Timeliidce. proceeding through the bushes 



in flocks, while others, like Ptilo- 



cichla are clothed in dense plumage, resembling 



the Formicariidee of South America. The characters and limits of this large 

 Old World family are still imperfectly understood. 



The bulbuls are another family peculiar to the Old World, thrush-like in 

 character, but differing from the thrushes in their short tarsi, and stronger 

 rictal bristles. They are birds of quiet habits, but possess a 

 sweet song. The Pycnonotidie are found all over Africa, 

 and one species is an inhabitant of Algeria and Morocco. 

 They are strongly represented throughout the Indian region, 

 and. extend into the entire Malayan region. 

 The chief character which distinguishes this Old World family of birds 

 The is the spiny character of the rump-feathers. They are 



Cuckoo-Shrikes, found throughout the Ethiopian, Indian, and Australian re- 

 Family gions, and constitute a link between the flycatchers and the 

 Campophagidve. shrikes. 



The flycatchers are mostly broad -billed, insect- catching birds, with abun- 

 dant rictal bristles, entirely confined to the Old World, over the whole 



of which they are distributed. They 

 TheFlycatchers vhave spofcfced young like the thrushes, 



nr * m ?/ an( l N this account it is often very 



******* difficult to determine whether some of 

 the genera should be referred to the Turdidce or the 

 Muscicapidce. 



Our common flycatcher (Muscicapa grisola) is a 

 late summer migrant to England, and arrives from 

 Africa in May. The last-named continent is also 

 the home of a number of resident species of the genus 

 Muscicapa, which is also well represented in the Indian 

 and Chinese regions by species similar to M. grisola. 

 The nest of the latter species is often placed in a crevice 

 of bark on a tree and decorated with lichens and spiders' 

 webs, which help to conceal it. The eggs are greenish- 

 white or stone-colour, with reddish-brown spots. The 

 pied flycatcher (Ficedula atricapilla) represents another section of the Musci- 

 capidw, and lays blue eggs, the nest being in the hole of a tree. The fau- 



The Bulbuls. _ 



Family 

 Pycnonotidce. 



Fig. 11 4. T 11 E COM MON 

 FLYCATCHER 



(Muscicapa grisola). 



