OF OENITHOLOGY 39 



To properly characterize the Families, Sub-families, 

 and Genera, and to name the Species, of North American 

 Birds would require more space than the limits of these few 

 pages of preliminary study will permit. Nor is it always 

 easy to give even the mere necessary determining marks of 

 family, sub-family, and genera. We could not, with propri- 

 ety, say that any one division develops into or from another ; 

 yet, one group drifts so insensibly into another that, as yet, 

 the greater part of our system is, of necessity, merely arti- 

 ficial. Different writers often place the same species in very 

 different genera or even families ; hardly any two writers will 

 agree as to the members of each group. Of one thing only 

 can we be certain : namely, the individual. This remains con- 

 stant wherever it is found. The wise student, therefore, ig- 

 nores, in a very great measure, all systems of classification, 

 and studies the individual. This is especially evident when, 

 as often happens, a single new genera, sub-family, and even 

 family are formed for a single species. To the individual, then, 

 we must all go, sooner or later ; but it is not our object here 

 to study so much the different members of our various groups 

 as to ascertain the present state of our knowledge of the 

 higher divisions, that, by their careful arrangement, we may 

 be brought to a wiser grouping, if possible, of the individual. 

 Many of our divisions are known more by the members which 

 they contain than by any of the usual arbitrary " characteris- 

 tics " ; in fact, some of our so-called families can not be char- 

 acterized at all, so varied are the individuals included within 

 them. Of these the Thrushes are a good example. 



I LAND BIROS. 



FAMILY I TURDIDAE THE THRUSHES 



Latin turdus, " a thrush, a field-fare." 

 The main characters of this family are : Tarsus booted] 

 primaries ten, the first spurious or quite short ; wings longish 

 and pointed and geuerally shorter than the tail ; bill mostly 



