TURDIDAE 



SIS 



black cap or chestnut vent ; Mc/anopiila, however, is uniform 

 purplish- or bluish-black, Ithodinocincla rosy or rufous belgw in 

 the male and female respectively, with superciliary streak to 

 match. Oreoscoptes, Mimus, Cichlherminia, and Hurporhynchus 

 often shew spots beneath and Bonacohius dusky bars, Mimus 

 irifasciatus has a dark chest-band. 



The Turdidae occupy the whole globe, being characteristically, 

 though not invariably, migratory.^ Of the Turdinae, Thrushes 

 abound in the Neotropical Eegion, and — if we include the 

 G-round-Thrushes — are common in the Ethiopian, Indian, and 

 Australian, but the Palaearctic and Nearctic are poorly supplied : 

 Chats, Eobins, Eedstarts, Nightingales, Hedge-sparrows, and their 

 nearest allies are mainly Palaearctic, Ethiopian, and Indian ; 

 though Si(.i!ia reaches America, Pratincola Celebes, and Petroeca 

 Samoa. Xesocichla is restricted to Tristan da Cunha, Turnagra 

 to New Zealand, Phaeornis to the Sandwich Islands ; while 

 Madagascar possesses peculiar forms both of this Sub-family and 

 of the Sylviinae. The last-named, however, are chiefly Palae- 

 arctic, and visit the southern Old World in winter ; yet two species 

 of Acroceplialus breed in Australia, Miro and Myiomoira occupy 

 New Zealand, Tatare and Psamathia are Polynesian, one species of 

 Pliylloscopus reaches Alaska, Begulus occurs thence to Panama, and 

 so forth. The Polioptilinae and Miminae inhabit North and South 

 America ; the Myiodectinae range from the more western United 

 States to Bolivia and Brazil. Of the last groups several forms are 

 confined to the Antilles, and of the Miminae three to the Cralapagos. 



Thrushes inhabit wooded country, and reach an altitude of 

 twenty thousand feet in some latitudes ; they feed chiefly on the 

 ground, where they hop about scratching or searching for worms, 

 molluscs, and insects. Snails are habitually cracked on some 

 favourite stone by the Song-Thrush, and fruit is also eaten. The 

 strong rapid flight is undulating and frequently low, but flocks 

 cover vast distances on migration ; Ground - Thrushes are 

 naturally more terrestrial and resident, while the solitary Eock- 

 Thrushes haunt stony hills, rocks, and ruins. This Sub-family 

 comprises some of our very finest songsters, the Song-Thrush or 

 Mavis vying with the Nightingale, which gladdens both day and 

 night, and the Blackbird uttering delightfully mellow notes ; but 

 chirping sounds and harsher screams are common. Phaeornis 



' For new British species, see Saunders, Manual Brit. Birds, 2nd edition, 1897-9. 



