207 



where it is found in great numbers. Linnaeus 

 has described from Feuille the female of this 

 bird under the name of turdus 'phinibeus. The 

 female is indeed of a grey colour, but the male 

 is entirely black except a yellow spot wfiich it 

 has under the wings ; it has the shape of a 

 thrush, but the tail is cuneated ; it makes its 

 nest upon trees near the river with wet mud, in 

 which it lays four eags ; its song is very sweet 

 and loud, but it will not bear confinement ; it is 

 never eaten, as its flesh has a rank and disafrree- 

 able smell. 



The tlicnca (tardus thcnca) in my opinion is 

 merely a variety of the Virginian thrush (turdus 

 polyglottus) or of the turdus Orpheus, or cent- 

 zontlatotle of Mexico, called the four hundred 

 tongues, from tiie variety of its notes; it is of 

 the size of the common thrush, but its wings 

 and its tail, which is entire and rounded, are 

 longer ; its eyes, bill, and feet are brown ; the 

 upper part of its body is of an ash-colour^ 

 spotted with brown and white ; the ends of the 

 quills and the tail-feathers are white, and the 

 breast and belly of a light grey; it builds its 

 nest upon trees ; this is a foot in length, of a 

 cylindrical form, lined within with wool and 

 feathers, and completely guarded upon the out- 

 ride with thorns, except a sniall opening, by 

 which the female enters and deposits her eggs 



