THE BIRDS OF INDIA. 



Sub-fam. Timalinjs, Babbling Thrusbes. 



Syn. Crater opodinae, Swains. — Timalidce, Hon&Tp.—Liotrichidce, 

 Caban., and Van Hoeven (in part). 



Legs and feet stout and large ; bill various in form and length, 

 almost always compressed, usually notched ; wings short and 

 rounded ; tail largish, graduated ; plumage often lax. 



This family presents a large assemblage of birds of diverse and 

 varied aspect ; some with short and thick bills ; a few with long 

 and curved beaks ; others with this organ moderate and Thrush-like. 

 In fact, we have represented here, as far as the beak is concerned, 

 Thrushes, Shrikes, Jays, Finches, Titmice, and Tree-creepers. 

 Their most characteristic features are their strong legs and feet, 

 combined with a short rounded wing, and a compressed bill. 

 Their colors are usually plain and sombre, in one group varied 

 with some richer tints. Their habits correspond with their struc- 

 tural details. They are mostly social, or even gregarious ; they 

 are a good deal on the ground, on which they hop vigorously, or 

 climb with facility through tangled thickets or reeds ; and their 

 food is both insects, fruits, and grain. The majority of those, 

 with whose habits we are familiar, lay blue eggs. The sexes 

 rarely differ, if at all, and the young are clothed much as the 

 parent birds, only somewhat duller. The greater number of the 

 species, as at present recognized, are Asiatic, chiefly from India 

 and Malay ana ; and it is only of late 3^ears that most of them 

 have been made known to science. They extend through the 

 Eastern Isles to Australia and New Zealand ; several are African ; 

 and possibly many birds of the New Continent may be found to 

 associate naturally with the birds of this group. 



Swainson was the first naturalist who seized on their peculi- 

 arities of structure, and named them Crater op odina>, a name which 

 perhaps ought to be retained. Bonaparte, in his Conspectus, 



A 



