318 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and acts much like a flycatcher, with its somber colors and flycatching 

 habits. In flight the light patches in its wings and the white in the tail 

 suggest the mockingbird. Its feeding habits remind one of the blue- 

 birds. But its song is decidedly thrushlike, though not equal to the 

 songs of the star performers in this gifted group, and its spotted young 

 proclaim its close relationship to the thrushes. 



During the breeding season the solitaire is a bird of the mountains, 

 at various altitudes in different parts of its range. In New Mexico it 

 breeds mostly above 8,000 feet and from there up to 12,000 feet, 

 ranging up to timberline and above it, among the stunted spruces and 

 dwarfed willows, in summer. In Colorado, its breeding range is not 

 much lower, from 7,000 to 10,000 feet. In his notes from Zion 

 National Park, Utah, Russell K. Grater says: "This bird is resident 

 throughout the year in elevations from 7,500 to 10,500 feet and is 

 commonly seen in the lower canyons in the winter. It appears to 

 frequent the more deeply shaded, narrow canyons much more than 

 the more open situations." Farther north it breeds at much lower 

 altitudes. 



Its favorite haunts iD the mountains are the open forests of pines and 

 firs on the gentle slopes, which it seems to prefer to the more densely 

 wooded and more shady forests, though it is sometimes found there 

 also. Steep, rocky, fir-covered slopes are often favored, within the 

 Canadian Zone. And it sometimes finds a congenial summer home in 

 the wider canyons, where the high rocky walls support a scattered 

 growth of stunted cedars and offer suitable crevices for nesting. 



Nesting. — Townsend's solitaire is a lowly nester. It usually places 

 its nest on or near the ground, often sunken into it, but generally the 

 nest is protected from above by some form of overhanging shelter, 

 which also helps to conceal it. Many nests have been found partially 

 concealed at the base of a fir or pine, where a small cavity had rotted 

 out or been burned out by forest fires ; many such cavities exist on the 

 fir-clad slopes of the mountains. Another common nesting site is 

 under the overhanging bank on the side of a narrow mountain trail, 

 where the sitting bird may be flushed by a passer-by; in such a situa- 

 tion the nest may be sunken into a hollow in the earth and is often 

 concealed under the overhanging roots. A cavity under a rock or a 

 crevice among rocks is sometimes chosen, or a rotted out cavity in a 

 dead stump, rarely as high as 10 feet above the ground, may be used. 

 Among the tangled roots of a fallen tree the birds may find a suitable 

 cavity, especially if a large stone has fallen out and left a tempting 

 hollow. 



Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) mention a nest, found close to 

 Lake Helen in the Lassen Peak region in California, that "was in a 

 nook (20 by 20 centimeters) formed by three rocks on a dry, rocky 



