ZOOLOGY. 



85 



This genus, with the exception of one species, are all 

 natives of warm countries, they are usually gregarious, feed- 

 ing on berries, snails, slugs, and coleopterous insects. ; they 

 mostly affect marshy places, and generally roost upon the 

 ground. They nestle sometimes in old ruined buildings, 

 steeples, lofty towers, the hollows of trees, and likewise 

 in holes forsaken by Woodpeckers. They are a noisy 

 restless tribe, many of them very splendidly colored ; in 

 flying they pursue a horizontal direction with a continued 

 regular vibration of their wings, without any of those undu- 

 lations, which are common to most other kinds. The Euro- 

 pean species is the Common Starling. (S» vulgaris^) 

 British Ornithology^ vol, 2. 



2. Turdus. Thrush. 1?/// strait, the upper mandible slight- 



ly curving towards the tip, near which in some species 

 it is notched; nostrils naked; tongue jagged at the 

 point ; the sides of the mouth furnished with stitf 

 bristles ; feet and toes as in the last genus. 



Most of the Thrushes are song birds^ on which account a 

 large variety of the species are kept in confinement. 

 They are widely dispersed, some or other of the kinds 

 being found in most parts of the globe ; woody places, 

 orchards, and low coppices, are their favourite resorts ; most 

 of the European species are migratory, retiring northward 

 in the Spring, and southward in Autumn : they feed on ber- 

 ries, snails, slugs, and worms. Eight species are common to 

 this country. See British Ornithology^ vols. 1, 2, 3. 



3. Ampelis. Chatterer. Bill strait, convex, curving 



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