09 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Habits. At present we have but little knowledge of the habits of this form 

 of T. iKiUasi, and no information whatever regarding its nesting or eggs. 



In its distribution it is confined to the central range of mountains from 

 Fort Bridger to Southern Mexico. This species, there known as " Solitario," 

 is common in the Alpine region of Vera Cruz (as well as in all the elevated 

 regions of Central Mexico), frequenting ■ the pine woods in the district of 

 Orizaba. Mr. Sumichrast obtained it at all seasons of the year at Moyoapam, 

 in that vicinity ; a locality the height of which approximates 2,500 metres. 

 It is also found at a height of 1,200 metres, near the city of Orizaba. 



Mr. Eidgway calls this bird the " Eocky Mountain Hermit Thrush." 

 He states that he found it common in the AVahsatch JNIountains, but that, 

 on account of its retiring habits, it was seldom seen. It there lives 

 chiefly in the deep ravines in the pine region, exhibiting an attachment to 

 these solitudes rather than to the thickets along the watercourses lower 

 down ; the latter it leaves to the T. sioainsoni. Owing to the reserved 

 manners of this bird, as well as to the great difficulty of reaching its abode, 

 there were few opportunities presented for learning much concerning its 

 habits, nor did he hear its song. In its flight the pale ochraceous band across 

 the bases of its quills was a very conspicuous feature in the appearance of 

 its ' species, leading Mr. Eidgway to mistake it at first for the Myiadestes 

 toicnscndii, — also an inhabitant of the same localities, — so much did it 

 look like that bird, which it further resembled in its noiseless, gliding flight. 



Subgenus TURD US, Lixn. 



Of Turclus, in its most restricted sense, we have no purely American 



representatives, although it 

 /^ belongs to the fauna of the 



New World in consequence 

 of one species occurring 

 in Greenland, that meet- 

 ing-ground of the birds 

 of America and Europe ; 

 which, however, we include 

 in the present work, as 

 related much more closely 

 to the former. 



This Greenland species, 

 Turdtis iliacus, is closely 

 related to T. viscivorus, the 

 type of the genus, and 

 comes much closer to the 



Tardus iliacus. 



American Eobins (Plancsticns) than to the Wood Thrushes {Hylocichla). 



