302 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



was master. Sometimes he would sit on the top of a 

 bush or a fence-post, but his favorite perches were sev- 

 eral ridges of sand and gi'avel. His flight was the 

 picture of grace, and he had a habit of lifting his 

 wings, now one, now the other, and often both, after 

 the manner of the mocking-bird on a chimney-top. He 

 and his mate did not utter a chirp, but made a great 

 to-do by singing, and finally I discovered that all the 

 fuss was not about a nest, but about a hulking young- 

 ster that had outgrown his kilts and looked very like a 

 brown thrasher. Neither of this second pair of soli- 

 taires performed any evolutions in the upper air ; nor 

 did another pair that I found far up a snow-clad moun- 

 tain near Breckenridge, on the other side of the Conti- 

 nental Divide. 



The scientific status of this unique bird is interesting. 

 He is a species of the genus Myadestes^ which belongs 

 to the family Turdidce, including the thrushes, stone- 

 chats, and bluebirds, as well as the solitaires. He is 

 therefore not a thrush, but is closely related to the 

 genus Turdiis, occupying the same relative position in 

 the avi-faunal system. According to Doctor Coues the 

 genus includes about twenty species, only one of which 

 — the one just described — is native to the United 

 States, the rest being found in the West Indies and 

 Central and South America. Formerly the solitaires 

 comprised a subfamily among the chatterers, but a later 



