468 THRUSHES, SOLITAIRES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. 



pewees, green-tailed chewinks, and mountain song sparrows made 

 themselves conspicuous, the pair of solitaires were too conscious of 

 intruders to give any information. The male, who suggested a meek 

 mockingbird, guarded the brook in an aggravatingly non-committal 

 way, perching on dead branches or flying to the ground, where he 

 ran over the rocks with the run-and-halt motion of a robin, or sat on 

 a stone quivering his wings slightly at his sides. His mate would 

 sometimes slip away from the nest and appear on a branch by his 

 side, and once I followed the pair over the boulders and up the cliff, 

 thinking they had gone to their nest in some other place, only to be 

 led back over the rocks to their little brook under the evergreens. 

 Then, as the setting sun lit up the tops of the hemlocks that stood by 

 the brook, turning their yellow lichen-covered branches to golden 

 arms, the solitaire, perched on a sunlit branch, sang a low evening 

 song in the mellow light. At other times, and when not on guard, 

 the bird's song would fairly ring through the air. When given 

 freely it is a strong, clear song with a flavor all its own. Heard 

 from the tips of the highest trees on the crest of the range, as it so 

 often is, the song has the freshness and invigoration of the air from 

 the snow-banks, and is given with the strong freedom of the moun- 

 tain tops. In the rocky solitudes of the Garden of the Gods it is said 

 that the solitaire's voice is sometimes all that breaks the silence. 



GENUS HYLOCICHLA. 



General Characters. — Bill slender, but widened and flattened at base, 

 notched near end ; tarsus decidedly longer than middle toe and claw. 



KEY TO SPECIES. 



1. Sides as well as breast heavily spotted ; head golden brown. Eastern 



United States " mustelina, p. 469. 



1'. Sides gray or brown, unspotted ; head not golden brown. 

 2. Eye without distinct lighter orbital ring. 



3. Upper parts and cheeks dark gray. Migrant in Rocky Mountains. 



aliciae, p. 469. 

 3'. Upper parts and cheeks light brown. Rocky Mountain region. 



salicicola, p. 469. 

 2'. Eye with distinct white or buffy eye ring. 

 3. Chest marked with narrow triangular spots. 

 4. Upper parts olive brown. Pacific coast region. 



ustulata, p. 470. 

 4'. Upper parts olive gray. Oregon and California, oedica, p. 470. 

 3'. Chest marked with wide triangular spots. 

 4. Tail rufous in sharp contrast to back. 

 5. Tail dark rufous ; length 6 to 7. 



6. Lighter. Breeds mainly north of United States ; migrates 



to Colorado and Texas guttata, p. 471. 



6'. Darker. Breeds from Washington to Sierra Nevada ; mi- 

 grates to Arizona and Mexico nana, p. 472. 



