THRUSHES, SOLITAIRES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. 467 



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

 Adult ft male: similar, but without black on head. Youny : like female, 

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

 Length: 4.15-4.50, wing 1.U0-2.0U, tail 2.15-2.2.5. 



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. 

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

 reddish brown. 



FAMILY TURDIDiE : THRUSHES, SOLITAIRES, BLUE- 

 BIRDS. ETC. 



KEY TO GENERA. 



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



1'. Plumage largely gray or brown. 



2. Under parts reddish or yellowish brown. 



:]. Chest with a dark band Ixoreiis. p. 473. 



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



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



3. Tail white basally, black terminally .... Saxicola, p. 475. 

 3'. Tail not white basally or black terminally. 



4. Wings with two light bars Myadestes, p. 4()7. 



4'. Wings plain Hylocichla, p. 468. 



GENUS MYADESTES. 



754. Myadestes townsendii (Aud.). Townsend Solitaire. 



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

 feathers tapering. Adults : brownish 

 gray, ])aler beneath ; wings with two 

 whitish wing bars, bases of primaries 



and secondaries biifpy or yellowish 



brown ; tail feathers with outer web Fig. ."/.)T. 



and tip of inner web grayish white. 



Youny : 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 tlie 

 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 <»f sticks and pine needles, i^yys : 3 to ('», whit- 

 i.sh, spotted with reddish i)r(>\\ n. 



The luinio Aft/a dint cs is iis-sotiati'd with the choicest spots of the 

 mountain heights. In tlie Sierra Nevaila we fount! the birds on their 

 nesting ground on the granite knob above Donner Pa.ss. at 7!)00 feet. 

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

 bed, whicii wa.s tlanked with bare granite, from which W(^odciiucks 

 whistled and conies barked. But while nutcrackers, Kichardsou 



