286 ‘THE TOWNSEND SOLITAIRE. 
irregularly from British Columbia (Sumas) southward, straggling into Mississippi 
Valley during migrations. 
Range in Washington.—Not uncommon spring and fall migrant thruout the 
State, summer resident in the mountains to the limit of trees and elsewhere 
irregularly to sea level; partially resident in winter west of the Cascade Mountains. 
Authorities.—? Ptiliogonys townsendi, ‘Townsend, Narrative, 1839, p. 338. 
Myiadestes townsendii Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. [X. 1858, 321. T. C&S. D'. 
Le Ifo 18, 1, 
Specimens.—U. of W. P*. Prov. B. BN. E. 
“OF this singular bird I know nothing but that it was shot by my friend, 
Captain W. Brotchie, of the Honorable Hudson’s Bay Company, in a pine for- 
est near Fort George, (Astoria). It was the only specimen seen.” In these 
words J. Kk. Townsend, the pioneer ornithologist of the Pacific Northwest, 
records* the taking of the first example of this species known to science. 
The bird thus presented as a conjectural native of Washington, has long 
been a puzzle to naturalists. It has been called Flycatcher, Thrush, and a com- 
bination of the two; but the name Solitaire seems to express both our noncom- 
mittal attitude toward the subject, and the demure independence with which 
the bird itself proceeds to mind its own affairs. Barring the matter of struc- 
ture, which the scientists have now pretty well thrashed out, the bird is every- 
thing by turns. He is Flycatcher in that he delights to sit quietly on exposed 
limbs and watch for passing insects. ‘These he meets in mid-air and bags with 
an emphatic snap of the mandibles. He is a Shrike in appearance and manner, 
when he takes up a station on a fence-post and studies the ground intently. 
When its prey is sighted at distances varying from ten to thirty feet, it dives 
directly to the spot, lights, snatches, and swallows, in an instant; or, if the catch 
is unmanageable, it returns to its post to thrash and kill and swallow at leisure. 
During this pouncing foray, the display of white in the Solitaire’s tail reminds 
one of the Lark Sparrow. Like the silly Cedar-bird, the Solitaire gorges itself 
on fruit and berries in season. Like a Thrush, when the mood is on, the Soli- 
taire skulks in the thickets or woodsy depths, and flies at the suggestion of ap- 
proach. Upon alighting it stands quietly, in expectation that the eye of the be- 
holder will thus lose sight of its ghostly tints among the interlacing shadows. 
And so one might go on comparing indefinitely, but the bird is entitled to 
shine in its own light. The Solitaire is swi generis—no doubt of that. As soon 
as we establish for it a certain line of conduct, the bird does something else. 
We banish it to the mountains for the nesting season—a pair nests in a rail- 
a. Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River [etc.], by John K. 
Townsend (1839), p. 339. Townsend’s “Catalog of birds found in the territory of the Oregon,” which 
appeared in this work, pp. 331-336, enjoys the distinction of being the first faunal list of this north- 
western region. It contains 208 titles but the naturalist included in it mention of many species encount- 
ered by him in his passage of the Rocky Mountains, and he does not, of course, distinguish between 
the regions lying north and south of the Columbia River. Of the total number recorded, therefore, 
Washington cannot possibly be entitled to above 168 species, and the list has little value in establishing 
the status of a bird as a resident of Washington. 
