THRUSHES. 



493 



numerous genus inhabiting the oriental and Australian regions, which have obtained 

 their name from their habits of spreading out the tail to its full extent while darting 

 after the insects. The Australian 'grinder' (/Sisura inquieta) has been so called by 

 the colonists on account of the peculiar voice, which is "something like that caused 

 by a razor-grinder at work." This curious voice is not its call-note, however, but is 

 only uttered when hovering over the ground like a small falcon, probably in order to 

 attract the attention of the insects upon which it darts headlong. 



On the whole, the habits of the fly-catchers are very uniform, or ' monotonous,' as 



FIG. 240. Muscicapa yrisola, spotted fly-catcher ; Ficedula atricapilla, pied fly-catcher. 



a recent author lias called them. In nearly exclusively catching their prey while on 

 the wing, they closely resemble the American tyrants, with which for a long time 

 they were united in the systems. 



Gradually the fly-catchers with the broad, depressed bills fade into the more nar- 

 row-billed thrushes, the central groups of which are characterized by a young plumage 

 spotted with whitish or ochraceous, and usually by 'booted' tarsi. From the oldest 

 genus, the family may be called TURDID^E, though embracing a number of forms which 

 are often dignified as Sylviidae, Saxicolida3, etc. The limits of this 'family' are a 

 mutter of doubt, but a rough estimate will give about eight hundred species belong- 

 ing to a bewildering number of genera. Xo wonder that a group of such extent is 

 cosmopolitan in its distribution, for the Turdidae occur from the bleak Arctic and 

 Antarctic regions to the equator, not only populating the wide continents, but pene- 

 trating to the remotest islands, where they often specialize into very interesting gen- 



