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Thrushes 675 



In the fall they resort in numbers to feed upon wild cherries, alder berries, of 

 which they are excessively fond, as well as cedar berries, and altogether are of 

 far more value than the price of the comparatively few fruits they consume. 



South American Thrush. The only other species of the genus that space 

 will permit us to mention is the Dusky or South American Thrush (P. amauro- 

 chalina) of northern and eastern South America, which is olive-gray above, 

 becoming browner on the head and pale gray below with the throat and middle 



the abdomen white. "It is," says Mr. Hudson, "a shy forest bird, a fruit 

 and insect eater; abrupt in its motions; runs rapidly on the ground with beak 

 elevated and at intervals pauses and shakes its tail ; strong on the wing, its flight 

 not being over the trees, but marked by their shadows." As a singer it takes 

 high rank, perhaps the highest of any South American bird, its strains, usually 

 given from the tree-top, being "poured forth in a continuous stream, with all 

 the hurry and freedom of the Skylark's song, but though so rapidly uttered, 

 every note is distinct and clear, and the voice singularly sweet and far-reaching." 

 Its nest and eggs are closely similar to those of the last-mentioned species. 



Ground Thrushes. Perhaps most closely related to the last is a group of 

 some half a dozen genera and upward of fifty species known as Ground Thrushes, 

 which are characterized by having the sexes usually different and the under 

 surface of the wing with a well-defined pattern of white. They are mainly 

 sedentary and especially ground-haunting in their habits, having short, rounded 

 wings and strong legs and feet. Being abundantly represented in Africa, 

 southern Asia, and the large islands to the southward, they are the only members 

 of the subfamily present in Australia and New Zealand, the former possessing 

 four and the latter two species. The only species we may mention is the Siberian 

 Ground Thrush (Geocichla sibirica), a bird about nine inches long, the male 

 being slaty gray with a broad stripe of white over the eye and down the abdomen, 

 and the female olive-brown above and buffish white below. After spending the 

 summer in central and eastern Siberia, they retire to China, the Burmese prov- 

 inces, and Java and Sumatra in winter. They frequent the ground in damp, 

 wooded localities, feeding on worms, insects, and snails, and construct a rather 

 rough nest of grasses, scantily walled with mud and lined with dry grass; it 

 is usually placed in the fork of a tree near the ground, and the complement 

 of four to six eggs are grayish or sometimes blue-green, finely spotted with 

 reddish. A single species, known as the Varied Thrush (Ixoreus n<zvia), of 

 extreme western North America, is the only representation of the group in the 

 New World. 



Coming now to a group in which, in addition to a marked structural distinc- 

 tion, the sexes are practically similar in plumage and the throat, breast, or flanks 

 more or less spotted at all ages, the common Missel Thrush may be taken as 

 typical of the genus Turdus. The Missel, or Mistletoe Thrush (Turdus visci- 

 vorus), of the Old World, which takes its name from its excessive fondness for the 

 berries of the mistletoe, has habits quite similar to those of the American Robin 

 just described. It is larger than the Robin, attaining a length of twelve inches, 

 its color being grayish brown above and buffy white boldly spotted with blackish 



