THE SOLITAIRE. 



first he never made the least effort to escape, but 

 seemed perfectly contented, so long as he was 

 alone. It was the presence of intruders — as he 

 regarded them — that he resented so fatally. 



One of this most interesting family, Town- 

 send's fly-catching thrush (^Myadestes To'wn- 

 sendii) is resident in the mountains of Colorado, 

 and it is pleasing to see how the most scientific 

 and the least emotional of chroniclers fall into 

 rapture over his song. " Never have I heard a 

 more delightful chorus of bird music," says one. 

 " The song can be compared to nothing uttered 

 by any other bird I have heard," says another. 

 " A most exquisite song in which the notes of 

 purple finch, wood thrush, and winter wren are 

 blended into a silvery cascade of melody that 

 ripples and dances down the mountain-side as 

 clear and sparkling as the mountain brook," says 

 a third. 



Charles Dudley Warner, who found the clarin 

 a favorite cage bird in Mexico, says of his song 

 (in " Mexican Notes ") : " Its long, liquid, full- 

 throated note is more sweet and thrilling than 

 any other bird note I have ever heard ; it is 

 hardly a song, but a flood of melody, elevating, 

 inspiring as the skylark, but with a touch of the 

 tender melancholy of the nightingale in the 

 night." 



