134 



SINGING BIRDS— OSCINES. 



base, and taiirrin^' to tlu- tip. Spurious ])riiuar_v nuarlj- ouu Ibiu'tli the longest (tkird), 

 the second a quarter ol'an iiieli le^^. tliaii llie longest. 



There arc other species iu Mexico. 



Myiadestes Townsendii, Audubon. 



TOWNSEND'S FLYCATCHER. 



PtiUoqonijs Townseiirlii, Ahduison, (Jrn. Biojj. V. May, 183!), 206 ; pi 419, f. 2. Ib. Birds 



Amur. I. 1840, 243 ; pi. 09. — Nuttall, Man. I. 2d cd. 1840, 361. — Gamisel, I'r. A. N. 



■ Sc. I. 1843, 261. — Nkwuekky, P R. Rep. VI. iv. 82. — Mi/iuJesta: Townsendii, Cab- 



ANis, Wicsm. Arch. I. 1847, 208. — B.vikd, P. R. Rep. IX. Bin'ds, .•i21. — Kennerlv, X. 



iv. 25. — Heeumaxn, X. vi. 38. — CoofEii and Suckley, XII. iii. Zool. of \V. T. 187. 



Sp. Cii.iU. Tail rather ileeiilv forked. Exposed portion of spurious cpuU less than one 

 third that ut'the second ; fourth quill longest ; second a little longer than the sixth. Head 

 not crested. General color bluish-ash, jjaler beneath ; under wing coverts white. Quills 

 with a brownish-yellow bar at the base of both webs, mostly concealed, but showing a 

 little below the greater coverts and alula; ; this succeeded by a bar of dusky, and next to 

 it another of brownish-yellow across the outer webs of the central quills only. Tertials 



Mull. 



Young. 



tipped with white. Tail feathers dark brown ; the middle ones more like the back ; the 

 lateral with the outer web and tip, the second with the tip only, white. A white rinu 

 round the eye. Length, 9.00 ; extent, 14.00 ; wing, 4.50 ; tail, 4.00. Iris brown ; bill 

 and feet black. 



Ilab. United States from Rocky Mountains to the Facilic ; south to the borders of 

 Mexico. 



Although ph^in in plumage, and retiring in haljits, this bird is one of the 

 most interesting in the Western country, for, like its not distant relative, 

 the European nightingale, it compensates hy its delightful melody for its 

 deficiencies in beauty. Having seen them in the Eocky Mountains, where 

 they seemed merely plain and silent flycatcliers, with habits similar to those 

 of Sai/ornis sayus, my astonishment when first I heard one sing in the 

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

 I could not ha^•e l)elie\-ed that one belonguig to the same family as the 

 nearly silent Avax-wings and Phalnopcpla could sing with such power. 



