598 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YOSEMITE 



by robins and thrushes, not being composed of mud, and being so loosely 

 put together that it can seldom be lifted intact from its placement. 



A typical nest was found beside the Glacier Point road at about the 

 7000 foot level two miles above Chinquapin in June, 1915. (See pi. 55&.) 

 It was in a cut bank, three feet above the road and two feet below the 

 top of the bank, in a depression in the earth between rocks and at the 

 base of a young fir tree the outstretching roots of which partially concealed 

 the nest. As is usual with the solitaire, a straggling 'tail' or apron of 

 material extended down the bank a foot or so from the nest proper. The 

 constituent materials of the latter were slender dead fir twigs and old, 

 brown needles of sugar and Jeffrey pines. Inside, the nest was about 3 

 inches (80 mm.) across and 2 inches (50 mm.) deep. On June 10 there 

 were 2 eggs, by June 12, 4. On each visit to the nest the female bird was 

 seen sitting, but she slipped off quietly and flew out of sight up the road. 

 Once the male was heard singing from among the dense firs near by. 



Solitaires at nesting time are notably unobtrusive birds. They haunt 

 shady places. Their color tone is neutral. They can keep perfectly still, 

 minutes at a time, and when they do move their motions are of a sort which 

 do not catch the observer's eye quickly. Thus a female solitaire, whose nest- 

 ing site is in plain view at the side of a well-traveled road, may come and go 

 throughout the whole nesting period without ever giving any clear indi- 

 cation that her interests in the locality are more than ceisual. Her attitude, 

 to outward appearances, is wholly the opposite of that of a robin or a 

 junco. 



During spring and summer the Townsend Solitaire subsists mainly 

 upon insects, many of which it captures on the wing, flycatcher-fashion. 

 The flight of the bird, however, is not swift; nor is it direct, as is that of 

 the Olive-sided Flycatcher, for example; it reminds one rather of the 

 Say Phoebe, in that the wings are widely spread and flapped rather slowly, 

 and the flight course is irregularly circuitous. A solitaire watched July 1, 

 1915, at the head of the upper Yosemite Falls trail, was keeping close about 

 the garbage cans maintained at the shaded lunch grounds there. The 

 bird every now and then flew out past a can in pursuit of some foraging 

 insect; then he sought another nearby perch, where he would sit quietly 

 with only an occasional turn of the head. The light eye-ring gave the 

 bird a large-eyed, passive expression, quite the opposite of that of the 

 sharp-eyed, alert warblers. Sometimes a solitaire will perch on boulders 

 or rocks on the ground, where it looks still more like a Say Phoebe. 



Through the nesting season the solitaire, as we have said, is a rather 

 reclusive species ; but in fall and early winter its demeanor chjinges. Then, 

 in suitable places, it is one of the most active and most conspicuous of 

 the birds present. Near our camp in Glen Aulin during late September 



