370 



A VES-ORDER PASSER/FORMES. 



The Warblers. - 

 Family 



Sylviidoi. 



is a large and compact structure, made of twigs and moss, and lined with 

 feathers, the eggs being stone-grey, spotted with black orblackish-brown. 



The Vireonidm constitute a small family of about sixty birds, peculiar 

 to the New World. They are. mostly of a green colour, and in many 

 respects resemble warblers, especially in the fact that the 

 young birds scarcely differ from the adults, whereas in the me Greenlets.— 

 shrikes, to which the greenlets are undoubtedly also allied. Family 



the young are cross-barred. The species of the genus Vireo Vireoiiidce. 

 build a pendent nest covered with lichens and mosses, and 

 they lay white eggs, speckled with red. 



The warblers were, until recent years, considered to be a part of the family 

 of thrushes ; but in 1881, they were separated by the late Henry Seebohm 

 on characters which have been admitted to be of deep-seated 

 importance, viz., that the warblers had a double moult, one 

 in spring and one in autumn, and the young were plain- 

 coloured and resembled the adults, whereas the thrushes 

 f have only an autumnal moult, and have spotted young, 



differing from the plumage of the adult. 



The warblers are denizens of the Old World, and are everywhere distri- 

 buted. Unfortunately we have not space to describe the many forms of 

 SylviidcE, which include some of the finest songsters in the world, such as the 

 nightingale {Daulias luscinia), the blackcap (Syltia atricapUla), and other 

 familiar summer migrants, such as the willow 

 warbler (Phylloscopus trochihis), the chiffchaff (P. 

 minor), etc. In the Sylviidm are also placed reed 

 warblers, like our own species (Acrocephalus 

 streperits), and sedge warblers {A. phragmitis) ; as 

 well as all the grass- warblers (Oisii^oid, Prinia, and 

 Sutoria). Some of the latter group build very in- 

 teresting nests, as they take a couple of leaves and 

 sew the edges together, so as to form a purse, in 

 which they build their nest, whicli is made of fine 

 grass, cotton down, and hair. The eggs are three 

 or four in number, white or bluish-green, boldly 

 marked with brownish-red. Tlie warblers are 

 insectivorous birds, though most of them, at certain 

 times, feed on small fruits and berries. In autumn 

 many of them migrate for very long distances. 



As explained above, the thrushes have only one 

 moult in the year, and that in the autumn , and 



they have the young birds thickly ^''»- ""-T",''- Indian T*ilok 



T.J T T ^ ^ , .. , Bird (^satona satorui). 



spotted and different from the 



adults. Thus in the family Tvr- 



didcF. are placed the robin {Erythacus rulecula) and its 



allies the blue-throats (Gyanecula) and redstarts {Butidlla), 



as well as the chats (Saxicola), and numbers of tropical genera, such as the 



chat-thrushes (Gossypha) of Africa, tlie shdmas {Cittocinda), and the dhayal 



birds (Gopsychus) of India. 



The thrushes may bo roughly divided into three groups : the ground- 

 thrushes {Oreocida and Gcocidda), the true thrushes (Turdus), and the 

 blackbirds (Merula). 



One of the largest and handsomest of the ground-thrushes is White's thrush 



The Thrushes 

 Family 



Turdidm. 



