280 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Genus MONTICOLA. 



The genus Monticola was established by Boie (Isis, 1822, p. 552), who 

 indicated M. saxatilis as the type. It contains the Rock-Thrushes, which 

 may be distinguished from the Ground-Thrushes by the absence of the 

 Geocichline pattern under the wing, from the true Thrushes by never 

 having the throat streaked, and from the Ouzels by their black legs and 

 bills, or, where the legs are black in the Ouzels, by having the bill less 

 than - 9 inch. From the Robins and the Redstarts and the smaller Chats 

 they may be distinguished by their stout bill (*74 or longer). From the 

 larger Chats the fact that the under tail-coverts are blue or chestnut is a 

 sufficient distinction. These generic distinctions are purely artificial. 

 The genera Monticola, Ruticilla, Saxicola, Erithacus, and Myrmecocichla 

 are all artificial ; and the eighty species which they contain really all belong 

 to one genus. I have only retained them out of deference to the practice 

 of ornithologists. The mania for making new genera is a great evil ; and 

 I have only retained the pseudo-genera in cases like the present for the 

 sake o convenience, or to avoid change. 



The Rock-Thrushes, of which about ten species are known, are confined 

 to the Old World, frequenting the southern half of the Palasarctic Region, 

 the ^Ethiopian Region, and the Oriental Region, being absent from the 

 Australian Region. Two species range throughout South Europe to 

 North China during the breeding-season. One species is resident in 

 Abyssinia, and three in South Africa. Two species breed in the Himalayas, 

 one of which extends also to West China. One species breeds in South- 

 east Siberia and North-east China, whilst another appears to be confined 

 to East China and Japan. One of the European species has without 

 doubt occurred in our islands, whilst another has been included in the 

 British list on unsatisfactory evidence. 



The Rock-Thrushes, although closely allied to the other Thrushes, are 

 still more so both in structure and habits to the Redstarts and Chats. 

 They are in fact nothing more than large Redstarts. They frequent open 

 rocky country, and, like the Redstarts and the Chats, are restless, solitary 

 birds. Most of the Rock-Thrushes are possessed of fair powers of song. 

 Their food consists largely of insects, grubs, and worms, and also, more 

 rarely, of fruit. Their nests are loosely made of rootlets, dry grasses, moss, 

 hair, and feathers, and placed in holes of walls and rocks. Their eggs are 

 from four to six in number, pale greenish blue in colour, very rarely 

 spotted with pale brown. 



