572 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



c*. Gonys longer than two-fifths the commissure ; plumage plain above 

 (except in j-oung), with prevailing color bright blue ; no white bpois 

 on quills; wing less than 4.50 Sialia. (Page 580.) 



c*. Gonys less than two-fifths the commissure; plumage much varied 

 above, the prevailing color bistre brown, more or less streaked with 

 dull whitish, the wings and tail mainly black; quills with white 

 patch at base; wing 5.00, or moi"e Ridijwayiu} 



Genus MYADESTES Swaixson. (Page 571, jil. CXXIV., fig. 7.) 



Species. 



Common Characters (of North American species). — Adults : Above uniform 

 brownish or grayish, beneath plain grayish ; a distinct whitish orbital ring ; quills 

 aud secondaries with a lighter (pale grayish or butfy) band near base, conspicuous 

 on spread wing. Young : Conspicuously spotted, above and below, with huffy. 

 Kest built among rocks, banks of streams, on old logs or stumps, or similar places, 

 rather bulk}-, loosely constructed of sticks, etc., lined with finer materials. £(jgs 3-6, 

 •whitish, speckled with reddish brown. 



a". Second quill equal to sixth, the primaries exceeding secondaries by about the 

 same distance that the latter exceed the greater coverts. 

 Adult: Uniform brownish graj", paler beneath, especially on chin and 

 throat, anal region, and lower tail-coverts; wings and tail dusky, the 

 bases of the quills and secondaries huffy or ochraceous (mostly con- 

 cealed in closed wing), the secondaries edged with pale grayish, the 

 greater coverts and tertials tipped with whitish (this obsolete in worn 

 summer dress) ; tail-feathers with outer web and terminal portion of 

 inner web grayish white. Young: Wings and tail as in adult; rest 

 of plumage, including wing-coverts, conspicuously spotted with buff. 

 Length 7.80-9.50. wing 4.35-4.85, tail 4.15-4.70. Eggs .91 X .69. Hob. 

 Western United Slates (in mountains), north to British Columbia, east 

 to and including Kocky Jfountaiiis (casualh- to Illinois). 



754. M. townsendii (Aud.). Townsend's Solitaire, 

 a'. Second quill not longer than seventh, the longest primaries exceeding the sec- 

 ondaries by much loss than distance between tips of latter and longer greater 

 coverts. 

 6'. Lower parts conspicuously different in color from the upper; a distinct 

 duskj^ streak on each side of throat. (Head, neck, and breast gray, 

 darker above ; other upper parts rusty olive, the wings more rusty ; 

 secondaries with a dusky bar across basal portion ; sides of forehead, 

 malar stripe, throat, and belly whitish.) 

 c*. Head and breast dark gray, the throat not conspicuouslj- paler; wing 



> R;il,ja>n<j{a Stkjseokh, Proo. U. S. Nat. Mus. v. Ftb. 13, 18S3, 400. Type, Turdiit piiiiculu ScL. {Uab. 

 MouutaiDv of eastern Mexico.) 



