TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE 321 



The measurements of 50 eggs average 23.5 by 17.2 millimeters; 

 the eggs showing the four extremes measure 26.5 by 18.1, 22.9 by 

 18.3, 20.8 by 17.3, and 22.8 by 16.2 millimeters. 



Young. — No one seems to have worked out the incubation period 

 for the Townsend's solitaire. Probably what nests have been found 

 have been robbed by egg collectors. Nor does it seem to be known 

 how long the young remain in the nest, nor at what rate they develop. 

 Mrs. Wheelock's (1904) brief experience with a brood of young soli- 

 taires would seem to indicate that both parents assist in the care of 

 the young and are very solicitous for their welfare. The late dates 

 at which fresh eggs have been found suggest that two broods are often 

 raised in a season, but the evidence is not conclusive. 



Plumages. — Ridgway (1907) describes the striking juvenal plumage 

 very well, as follows: "Pileum, hindneck, back, scapulars, rump, 

 upper tail-coverts, and lesser and middle wing-coverts conspicuously 

 spotted with buff, each feather having a single spot of this color, ap- 

 proximately rhomboid or cordate in shape, the feathers broadly mar- 

 gined with blackish, causing a somewhat squamate effect; under 

 parts pale buff or grayish buff, the feathers margined with black or 

 sooty." The wings, except the coverts, and the tail are as in the 

 adult; the greater wing coverts, which are not renewed at the post- 

 juvenal molt, are tipped with buff, which fades out to white during 

 winter, and the tips are largely worn away before spring. 



The postjuvenal molt begins early in August and is usually com- 

 pleted before the end of September. This involves all the contour 

 plumages and the lesser and median wing coverts but not the rest of 

 the wings nor the tail. It produces a first winter plumage, which is 

 practically indistinguishable from that of the adult. 



Adults have one complete postnuptial molt, beginning sometimes as 

 early as the middle of July and continuing mainly through August. 

 June and July birds are usually in much-worn plumage, and many are 

 in fresh plumage again before the end of September. There is but 

 little seasonal change in plumage; there is, apparently, no spring molt, 

 but wear reduces the extent of the white on the greater coverts and 

 the tertials, and the body plumage is somewhat grayer, less brownish. 

 The sexes are alike in all plumages. 



Food. — Professor Beal (1915b) examined only 41 stomachs of 

 Townsend's solitaire, too few in his opinion to "draw general conclu- 

 sions." The food was made up of 35.90 percent of animal matter and 

 64.10 percent of vegetable. Of the animal food, Lepidoptera in the 

 form of caterpillars made up the largest item, 12.95 percent for the 

 year; one stomach, taken in May, held 72 percent caterpillars. Beetles 

 constituted the second largest item, 10.74 percent, of which 5.89 per- 

 cent were the useful predatory ground beetles (Carabidae) , 95 percent 



