THRUSHES, SOLITAIRES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. 467 



tipped with white ; under parts gray, tinged with brown on lower belly. 

 Adult female: similar, but without black on head. Young: like female, 

 but with browner wash and black of adult male appearing gradually. 

 Length: 4.15-4.50. wing l.UO-2.00, tail l'. 15-2.25. 



Distribution. From southern California along the Pacific coast of Lower 

 California. 



Nest. As described by Anthony, in fork of a weed, "2^ feet from the 

 ground, made of shreds of weeds and grass stalks lined with rabbit hair. 

 Eggs : 4, bluish green, lightly spotted and wreathed around larger end with 

 reddish brown. 



FAMILY TURDIDJE : THRUSHES, SOLITAIRES, BLUE- 

 BIRDS, ETC. 



KEY TO GENERA. 



1. Plumage largely or wholly blue Sialia. p. 475. 



1'. Plumage largely gray or brown. 



2. Under parts reddish or yellowish brown. 



3. Chest with a dark band Ixoreus. p. 473. 



3'. Chest without dark band Merula, p. 472. 



2'. Under parts white, buffy, or grayish. 



3. Tail white ba-sally. black terminally .... Saxicola, p. 475. 

 3'. Tail not white basally or black terminally. 



4. Wings with two light bars .....". Myadestes. p. 4(37. 

 4'. Wings plain Hylocichla, p. 468. 



GENUS MYADESTES. 



754. Myadestes townsendii (Aud.). TOWNSEND SOLITAIRE. 



Bill short, flattened, widened at base, deeply cleft ; legs weak ; tail 

 feathers tapering. Adults : brownish 

 gray, paler beneath ; wings with two 

 whitish wing bars, bases of primaries 

 and secondaries buffy or yellowish 



brown ; tail feathers with outer web Fig. 597 



and tip of inner web grayish white. 



Young : wings and tail as in adult : rest of plumage, including wing cov- 

 erts, conspicuously spotted with buff. Length : 7.80-9.50, wing 4.35-4.85, 

 tail 4. 15-4.70. 



Distribution. Breeds in mountains mainly in Canadian zone from Brit- 

 ish Columbia south to Zacatecas. Mexico, and from the Black Hills to the 

 Pacific ; winters south to southern Arizona and northern Lower Califor- 

 nia. 



Nest. On the ground, on logs or stumps, on banks of streams or among 

 rocks, bulky, made largely of sticks and pine needles. Eggs : 3 to 0, whit- 

 ish, spotted with reddish brown. 



The name Myadestes is associated with the choicest spots of the 

 mountain heights. In the Sierra Nevada we found the birds on their 

 nesting ground on the granite knob above Donner Pass, at 7900 feet. 

 They evidently had a nest somewhere along a steep, wooded stream 

 bed, which was flanked with bare granite, from which woodckucks 

 whistled and conies barked. But while nutcrackers, Richardson 



