MYIADESTES TOWXSEXDII, FLYCATCHING THRUSH. 95 



interior basin, and their extensions to the north and south." The same 

 excellent observer adds his testimony to that of Dr. Newberry respect- 

 ing the bird's vocal powers : "Although plain in pluratige and retiring 

 in habits, this bird is one of the most interesting in the western country ; 

 for, like its not distant relative, the European Nightingale, it compen- 

 sates by its delightful melody for its deficiencies in beauty. Having 

 seen them in the Hocky Mountains, where they seenied merely plain and 

 silent flycatchers, my astonishment, when I first heard one sing in the 

 Sierra Nevada, was indeed great ; and if I had not shot the bird imme- 

 diately, I could not have believed that one belonging to the same family 

 as the nearly silent Waxwings and Phmnopepla^* could sing with such 

 power, variety, and sweetness. Their song can be compared to nothing 

 uttered by any other bird I have heard in the United States, for it ex- 

 cels that of the Mockingbird in sweetness, besides being entirely origi- 

 nal. It has the melancholy slowness, but without the interruptions, of 

 that of the Wood-Thrush, and agrees better with the descriptions of 

 that of the Nightingale of Europe. 



Mr. Allen observed this bird in the mountains of Colorado, up to 

 timber-line. I found it rather rare, in summer, in Upper Arizona. 



I am favored by Mr. Trippe with the following interesting communi- 

 cation, designed for the present work: "This exquisite songster is a 

 permanent resident of the mountains of Colorado, and may be seen at 

 all times of the year, from the lower valley of the country up to timber- 

 line, and in midsummer even beyond it, to the highest limit of the 

 shrubby willows and junipers. It is never a familiar bird, shunning the 

 vicinity of houses and cultivated fields, and seeking the rockiest mount- 

 ain sides and darkest caGons as its favorite haunts, yet avoiding the 

 sombre depths of dense forests, though occasionally found therein. 

 During the winter it feeds on berries and such insects as it can find, but 

 in the warmer months subsists almost entirely upon the latter, which it 

 captures with the address of the most skilful Flycatcher. It is never 

 gregarious, and usually solitary, associating together only from the time 

 of pairing, which is in the early part of May, until the young are able 

 to shift for themselves. It frequently alights on the top of a dead limb 

 or tree, from which it kee[)S a bright lookout for passing insects, and re- 

 turns several times to the same perch after capturing its prey; it also 

 frequents the lower boughs, and at times alights u[)on the ground and 

 searches among the leaves for food. In its tlight it bears some resem- 

 blance to the Cedar-bird, with which, indeed, it has many common 

 traits. In summer and fall its voice is rarely heard ; but as winter comes 

 on, and the woods are well-nigh deserted by all save a lew Titmice and 

 Nuthatches, it begins to utter occasionally a single bell-like note that 

 can be heard distinctly at a great distance. The bird is now very shy; 

 and the author of the clear, loud call, that I heard nearly every morn- 

 ing from the valley of Clear Creek, was long a mystery to' me. Toward 

 the middle and latter part of winter, as the snow begins to fall, the Fly- 

 catching Thrush delights to sing, choosing for its rostrum a pine tree in 

 some elevated position, high up above the valleys; and not all the fields 

 and groves, and hills and valleys of the Eastern States, can boast a 

 more exquisite song; a song in which the notes of the Purple Finch, 

 the Wood Thrush, and the Winter Wren, are blended into a silvery cas- 

 cade of melody, that ripples and dances down the mountain sides as 

 clear and s[)arkliiig as the mountain brook, filling the woods and val- 



"Tho supposition that Phanopcpla nitcns is songless, is entirely crroneons. " It lias a 

 superb Honj;, powerful and finely niodnlated." CouES, Proc. IMiila. Aead. 186(5, 71 : 

 Key, ld72, 110. 



