[480] BIRDS OF OREGON 



those of the Western Blackbird except that it is not so fond of artificial 

 nest boxes. Jewett's notes mention an old flicker hole, a box on a house, 

 a tin mail box, and a pine stump as nesting sites, the number of eggs or 

 young varying from two to five, and Gabrielson, in addition to two nests 

 in old woodpecker holes, mentioned a nest, containing three young in a 

 natural cavity in a fence post. 



Townsend's Solitaire: 



Myadestes townsendi (Audubon) 



DESCRIPTION. "Bill short, flattened, widened at base, deeply cleft; legs weak; tail 

 feathers tapering. Adults: brownish gray, paler beneath; wings with two whitish 

 wing bars, bases of primaries and secondaries buffy or yellowish brown; tail feathers 

 with outer web and tip 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." (Bailey) Nest: On the ground, 

 a bulky mass of sticks and pine needles, usually placed near or on logs or stumps, 

 or among rocks. Eggs: 3 to 6, white, spotted with reddish brown. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from central Alaska, southwestern Mackenzie, and 

 western Alberta south in mountains to California, Arizona, and New Mexico. 

 Winters through much of its breeding ground. In Oregon: Permanent resident that 

 breeds in Cascades and Blue Mountains and probably in Warner Mountains and 

 spreads in winter to lower valleys in eastern Oregon. Straggles more or less regularly 

 to western Oregon after breeding season. 



BY ONE of those curious happenings that occasionally occur in the bird 

 world, the type locality of Townsend's Solitaire, this bird of the high 

 mountains and juniper-clad slopes of eastern Oregon, is at Fort George, 

 or Astoria. The type specimen collected by Townsend and described by 

 him in 1839 was one of those stragglers to western Oregon that occa- 

 sionally reach the coast. Newberry (1857) found it to be an abundant 

 species in the Deschutes River Basin. Bendire was greatly intrigued by 

 this first-rank songster, which he found there in numbers, and on Decem- 

 ber 5, 1874, wrote to Brewer (1875) as follows: 



In their habits they remind me very much of Phainofepla nitens. Like that species, they 

 prefer to perch on dry limbs, and as high as they can get on the juniper trees, which they 

 seem to frequent exclusively. At this season of the year they seem to feed on juniper berries 

 entirely. I can bear witness to the excellence of their song. I find it very varied, soft and 

 flutelike at times, strong and powerful at others, and it reminds me, in many respects, of 

 that of the European sky-lark. I most certainly consider it fully equal, if not superior, to 

 the song of our mocking-bird. Its usual call note is peculiar, and hard to describe. I took 

 it down at the time of hearing it, and do not give it from memory. It comes as near as pos- 

 sible to the occasional sound produced by an axle of a wagon just about commencing to need 

 greasing like hit-it and sometimes like wa-ip, with quite an interval between each syllable. 

 Generally the bird is seen singly, rarely in flocks. It prefers isolated patches of juniper to 

 the dense timber, and so I have only noticed it in junipers, or on rocks on the edges of the 

 bluffs. 



