WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 305 
breast with light brown. At first they crouched far back 
in terror, but when I put in my hand to pick up one the 
others popped out faster than I could catch them. This 
unexpected début startled me and called the adult male, 
who had evidently lingered in the neighborhood. He 
was naturally much distressed and, without coming 
nearer than fifty feet, lit on a conspicuous perch with 
many restless turnings and flutterings. Finding that this 
did not win me from my unfortunate proximity to his 
brood, he slipped out of sight and began calling to the 
young in a loud, liquid note more imperative than plain- 
tive. I sat immovable as the rock behind me, and in 
half an hour was rewarded by seeing both Solitaires 
come near enough to be recognized without a glass and 
feed a nestling who was crouching in a heap of stones, 
thirty feet from the nest site. As the parents were so 
much alike in form and color, I could not tell which one 
came to him. The other disappeared behind the stones 
and probably found the rest of the young to care for. 
So long as I sat there neither of the adults came into 
sight again ; and, putting back into the nest the young 
Solitaire I had caught, I withdrew to a distance and hid. 
More than two hours elapsed before either adult returned 
to the locality, and then the female was seen slipping 
silently to the nest. Her mate took up his guard on a 
high bare tree and after a time tried to sing, but the 
song lacked the joyous spontaneity of his usual outburst 
and, cutting it short, he flew down near the old nesting 
site. In afew moments he reappeared on the bare tree 
and remained there singing when the shadows of evening 
20 
