The Ant Thrushes inhabit forests or wooded tracts that abound upon the vast prairies of South America, and appear entirely to avoid mountain regions. Some few species venture near the inhabited districts; but, for the most part, they resort to the densest thickets or closest copses, and are most numerous in the hottest, quietest, and moistest localities, where they generally live upon the ground, and trust, even when alarmed, more to the swiftness of their feet than to the use of their wings. Other species again, frequent the bushes, and hop from branch to branch in search of food. The strength of foot displayed by the members of this family fully equals that of any other race of birds; they leap up and down with the utmost agility, and when endeavouring to elude pursuit, spring over the ground with a rapidity that renders it difficult even for a dog to overtake them. It is only during the period of incubation that the Ant Thrushes are content to take up their abode in any one particular spot; at other seasons they wander about from place to place, without, however, undertaking any regular migrations. We are almost unacquainted with the voices of these birds, but are told that great dissimilarity is observable in their notes, and that though some species are far noisier than the rest, none are distinguished for their powers of song. Insects constitute their principal food: these are obtained from the surface of the ground, sometimes by scratching upon it after the manner of hens. According to Kittlitz, they by no means despise vegetable diet. They greedily devour ants, and thus render inestimable service to mankind, by helping to destroy some of the vast swarms of those much-dreaded insects that occasionally sweep over the face of the country. "Everywhere in the neighbourhood of Para," Mr. Bates tells us, "the Saüba Ants are seen marching to and fro in broad columns, and carrying destruction among the cultivated trees and vegetables of the Brazilians. So large are the communities made by these tiny creatures, that the traveller often comes upon heaps of their dwellings of not less than forty yards in circumference, though not more than two feet high." We learn from Ménétrier that the Ant Thrushes breed in the spring-time of their native lands, and lay from two to three white eggs, marked with red; these are usually deposited with but slight preparations in a hole in the ground, or some similar situation. THE FIRE EYE.