572 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



c l . Gonys longer than two-fifths the commissure ; plumage plain above 

 (except in young), with prevailing color bright blue ; no white spots 

 on quills; wing less than 4.50 Sialia. (Page 580.) 



c 2 . Gonys less than two-fifths the commissure; plumage much varied 

 above, the prevailing color bistre brown, more or less streaked with 

 dull whitish, the wings and tail mainly black ; quills with white 

 patch at base; wing 5.00, or more Ridgwayia. 1 



GENUS MYADESTES SWAINSON. (Page 571, pi. CXXIV., fig. 7.) 



Species. 



COMMON CHARACTERS (of North American species). Adults: Above uniform 

 brownish or grayish, beneath plain grayish ; a distinct whitish orbital ring ; quills 

 and secondaries with a lighter (pale grayish or buffy) band near base, conspicuous 

 on spread wing. Young : Conspicuously spotted, above and below, with buffy. 

 Nest built among rocks, banks of streams, on old logs or stumps, or similar places, 

 rather bulky, loosely constructed of sticks, etc., lined with finer materials. Eggs 3-6, 

 whitish, speckled with reddish brown. 



a 1 . Second quill equal to sixth, the primaries exceeding secondaries by about the 

 same distance that the latter exceed the greater coverts. 

 Adult : Uniform brownish gray, paler beneath, especially on chin and 

 throat, anal region, and lower tail-coverts ; wings and tail dusky, the 

 bases of the quills and secondaries buffy or ochraceous (mostly con- 

 cealed in closed wing), the secondaries edged with pale grayish, the 

 greater coverts and tertials tipped with whitish (this obsolete in worn 

 summer dress) ; tail-feathers with outer web and terminal portion 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. Eggs .91 X -69. Hab. 

 Western United States (in mountains), north to British Columbia, east 

 to and including Rocky Mountains (casually to Illinois). 



754. M. townsendii (Auo.). Townsend's Solitaire. 



a 2 . Second quill not longer than seventh, the longest primaries exceeding the sec- 

 ondaries by much less than distance between tips of latter and longer greater 

 coverts. 



b l . Lower parts conspicuously different in color from the upper; a distinct 

 dusky streak on each side of throat. (Head, neck, and breast gray, 

 darker above; other upper parts rusty olive, the wings more rusty; 

 secondaries with a dusky bar across basal portion ; sides of forehead, 

 malar stripe, throat, and belly whitish.) 

 c 1 . Head and breast dark gray, the throat not conspicuously paler ; wing 



1 JRidywayia STEJNEOER, Proo. U. S. Nat. Mus. v. Feb. 13, 1883, 460. Type, Turdus pinicola SCL. (Hab. 

 Mountains of eastern Mexico.) 



