ORDER PASSERES. 515 



to impossible to draw the line. " A spotted warbler," says M. 

 Vieillot, " is to my eye nothing but a thrush in miniature." 

 From all this, it really appears that one of these two genera 

 must be purely artificial, since we can pass from one to the 

 other without being enabled to seize any tangible point of 

 difference between them. The same is the case with the loxia 

 and /ring ilia of Linnaeus, and with a great many other genera, 

 as the Baron has most clearly proved in the ' Regne Animal.'' 



If we consult again the habits, manners, and instinct of the 

 birds which compose the meruhne group, we shall find many 

 which do not differ in this respect from sturnus. Among 

 others, we may particularly remark this affinity in the African 

 species, described by M. Le Vaillant. 



Thrushes pkopek. In all systems of ornithology the 

 thrushes and blackbirds have been united in the same s-enus, 

 according to the generic characters common to both . Mont- 

 beillard, as we have above observed, has divided the genus into 

 two families. His remark on this occasion is worth notice. 

 " The generahty of mankind," says he, " appear to me to have 

 acted more wisely than naturahsts in giving distinct names to 

 things that are really distinct." The French name grive 

 has, then, been properly used to distinguish the birds of this 

 genus which have the plumage marked with spots pretty regu- 

 larly disposed. 



Four species of the thrush live in our climates : the thrush 

 properly so called, the missel, the redwing, and the fieldfare. 

 The two former pass the entire year in France, and also in the 

 southern parts of this country. They have a very agreeable 

 song, especially the thrush proper, which is also called the 

 song-thrush. Dr. Latham seems to think that this bird shifts 

 its quarters in winter, in the North of England and Scotland. 

 It probably leaves the country, or retires to the thick and 

 solitary woods. Both these species are distinguished by never 

 uniting in flocks for the purposes of migration. Their plu- 



