328 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



these were joined by two others when all four seemed to live near the 

 water troughs and playfully chased each other round and round the 

 cedars. They were not seen after a blizzard on Nov. 28, when the 

 temperature fell to 14° below zero, but they are able to withstand 

 severe cold, as a pair returned at the end of January and remained 

 until April 14." 



Frank Bond (1889) gives the following account of a great gathering 

 of solitaires in a canyon near Cheyenne, Wyo., in winter: 



On the walls of the canon, especially in the less precipitous places, there flourishes 

 a scattering growth of scrub cedar whose branches were well laden with the dark 

 blue cedar berry. Living, I believe, almost entirely upon these berries, for a winter 

 diet, were countless thousands of Townsend's Solitaire (Myiadestes townsendii) 

 and Robins {Merula migratoria propinqua). I saw also Sitta canadensis and 

 several Long-crested Jays (Cyanocilta s. macrolopha). Both the Solitaires and 

 Robins were acting like school children out for a holiday. They would chase 

 one another hither and thither, now up to the brow of the canon 500 or 600 feet 

 above, now back and forth across the mirrored ice of the river below, and all 

 the while singing and chattering like mad. It warms one's heart to enter such 

 a vale of melody in cold December." [The birds were still there up to February 

 7.1 



In El Paso County, Colo., according to Aiken and Warren (1914), 

 the solitaire is "a solitary bird in summer, but sometimes they con- 

 gregate in flocks of 20 or more in warm, sheltered canons and gulches 

 in winter. Early in 1911 Solitaires were seen in the residence portion 

 of Colorado Springs several times, which is something unusual." 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Western North America from the Arctic Circle to central 

 Mexico. 



Breeding range. — The Townsend's solitaire breeds north to central 

 eastern Alaska (Yukon River 20 miles above Circle); northwestern 

 Yukon (Bern Creek, Selwyn River, and the Semenof Hills); and 

 southwestern Mackenzie (Mount Tha-on-tha, at the mouth of the 

 Nahanni River). East to southwestern Mackenzie (mouth of the 

 Nahanni River) ; the mountains of western Alberta (Jasper Park, 

 Banff, and Calgary); western Montana (Lake McDonald, Flathead 

 Lake, Billings, and Kirby) ; northeastern Wyoming (Bear Lodge 

 Mountains) ; western South Dakota (Black Hills) ; northwestern 

 Nebraska (Squaw Canyon and Pine Ridge, in Sioux County) ; south- 

 eastern Wyoming (Wheatland and Laramie) ; central Colorado (Estes 

 Park, Buffalo Creek, Manitou, and Fort Garland) ; and central 

 northern New Mexico (Taos Mountains and Pecos Baldy). South 

 to northern New Mexico (Pecos Baldy, Santa Fe, and Fort Wingate) ; 

 central Arizona (White Mountains and Fort Whipple) ; and southern 

 California (San Jacinto Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains, and 



