BIRDS OF KANSAS. 641 



spiders' webs, thickly dotted on the outside with lichens, and 

 lined with a soft, downy substance from plants. Eggs four or 

 five, .56x.44; pale greenish white, spotted and blotched with 

 reddish brown, lilac and slate, thickest and running together 

 around the larger end; in form, oval to rounded oval. 



Family TURDID.^. Thrushes, Solitaires, Stonechats, 



Bluebirds, etc. 



"Nostrils oval; bristles or bristly points about the mouth; wings moderate, 

 not reaching, when folded, beyond the middle of the tail, and not over one and 

 a third times as long as the latter; tip formed by third to sixth quill; outer sec- 

 ondary reaching, in closed wing, three-fourths or more the length of the longest 

 primary; spurious quill longer, sometimes one-half the second; tarsi booted." 



Subfamily MYADESTIN^E. Solitaires. 



Gonys not more than one-third as long as commissure; the bill short and 

 rather depressed. {Ridgicay.) 



Genus MYADESTES Swainson. 

 "Occipital feathers full and soft; plumage rather loose; bill weak, much de- 

 pressed; commissure nearly straight; hind toe longer than inner lateral; toes 

 deeply cleft; closed wing externally with an exposed light band across the base 

 of the quills, and another near the end, separated by a darker one; tail somewhat 

 graduated on the sides." 



Myadestes townsendii (Axtd.). 



TOWNSBND'S SOLITAIRE. 

 PLATE XXXV. 



An occasional fall and winter visitant in the western part of 

 the State. 



B. 2.35. R. 2.5. C. 169. G. 12, 326. U. 754. 



Habitat. Western United States, chiefly in the mountainous 



regions; north to British Columbia; (not reported south of the 



United States;) east to Dakota and Texas. (A straggler was 



killed December 16, 1875, at Waukegan, Illinois. Nelson.) 



Sp. Char. "Tail deeply forked. Exposed portion of spurious quill less than 

 one-third that of the second; fourth quill longest; second a little longer tiiau 

 sixth. Head not crested. General color bluish ash, paler beneath; under wing 

 coverts white. Quills with a brownish yellow bar at the base of both webs 

 mostly concealed, but showing a little below the greater coverts and alula; this 

 succeeded by a bar of dusky, and next to it another brownish yellow across the 

 outer webs of the central quills only. Tertials tipped with white. Tail feath- 

 ers dark brown; the middle ones more like the back; the lateral with the outer 

 web and tip, the second with the tip only, white. A white ring round the eye. 



