HABITS OF TOWNSENd's FLYCATCHING THRUSH 45 



rowly tipped, with white. A white ring around the eye. Bill and feet black. 

 Eye brown. Length, about 8 inches; wing and tail about equal, 4-4^; the 

 latter forked centrally, graduated laterally ; bill, i ; tarsus, | ; middle toe 

 and claw rather more. 



Young : — Speckled at first, like a very young Thrush. Each feather with a 

 triangular or rounded spot of dull ochraceous or tawny, edged with blackish. 



AMONG the birds of our Western country, Townsend's 

 Thrush is almost the only one of general distribution 

 which I have never been able to study in its native haunts. 

 Until very lately, the Dipper was another which had always 

 given me the slip; but, during the summer of 1874, 1 added that 

 sprightly and vivacious ornament of the mountain-torrent to 

 the list of my i^ersonal friends, and in good time, perhaps, I 

 shall come to know the Flycatching Thrush as well. In pen- 

 ning an account of this stranger for the " Birds of the North- 

 west", I could only state that I had found it rather rare, in sum- 

 mer, in the upper portions of Arizona, and gather from my cor- 

 respondents, or from the published records of other observers, 

 some items of its life-history. I would refer to this article, 

 however, as a fair epitome of what was then known, and, 

 avoiding repetition, can now supplement it with some further 

 particulars, the principal of which relate to the nidification of 

 the species. 



None of the earlier observers appear to have ever found the 

 nest of this bird ; and to this day the eggs remain unknown. 

 A few years ago, however, Mr. Ridgway discovered a nest, an 

 account of which was communicated to Dr. Brewer, and pub- 

 lished in substance in the work above quoted. The original 

 notice, as prepared and printed (but up to the date of present 

 writing, February 8, 1876, remaining unpublished), I am able 

 to quote through the kindness of the writer, who has placed at 

 my service the i)roof-sheets of his report on the birds observ.ed 

 during the Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel by Clarence 

 King: — 



" In July, 18G7, we found a nest of this species in a deep 

 ravine on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, at an alti- 

 tude of about 5,000 feet. This nest was placed in a cavity of 

 the rocks forming the perpendicular upper bank of a sluice, 

 constructed for mining purposes, and through which ran the 

 water of a considerable mountain-stream. The nest, which was 

 about a foot above the water, was nearly as bulky as that of the 

 Brown Thrasher {Rarporhynchus rufiis), and similarly con- 



