672 The Sparrow-like Birds 



rictal bristles, strong, long, or medium "booted" tarsi, generally long and pointed 

 wings with ten primaries, and normally a square or rounded tail of twelve, or 

 very exceptionally fourteen, feathers, though in the Solitaires, Bluebirds, etc., it 

 is more or less emarginate. In color the plumage is ordinarily plain brown or 

 black, often more or less varied with white, gray, chestnut, or rufous, and there 

 is a decided tendency for the white breast to be spotted with brown; the nestling 

 plumage is almost always spotted or squamated to a greater or less extent. 

 They are largely terrestrial, some feeding exclusively on insects, while others, 

 such as the true Thrushes, enjoy a mixed diet of insects and fruits. 



Solitaires. The members of the first subfamily (Myadestina), known col- 

 lectively as the Solitaires, are distinguished from the true Thrushes by the pos- 

 session of a short, broad, depressed bill and powerful rictal bristles. With the 

 exception of a single Hawaiian genus, the half dozen genera and thirty forms 

 are natives of the New World, ranging from northern South America over the 

 Greater and Lesser Antilles, Central America, and Mexico, with a single species 

 in the western United States. The latter, known as Townsend's Solitaire (Mya- 

 destes townsendii\ is a loose-plumaged bird about eight inches long, of a medium 

 brownish gray color, with an eye-ring, a wing-bar, and the tips of the outer tail- 

 feathers white, and the bars of the wing-quills buff. " This exquisite songster," 

 says Trippe, "is a permanent resident of the mountains of Colorado and may 

 be seen at all times of the year, from the lower valleys of the country up to timber 

 line, and in midsummer even beyond it to the highest limit of the shrubby willows 

 and junipers. It is never a familiar bird, shunning the vicinity of houses and 

 cultivated fields, and seeking the rockiest mountain sides and darkest canyons 

 as its favorite haunts. During the winter it feeds on berries and such insects 

 as it can find, but in the warmer months subsists almost entirely upon the latter, 

 which it catches with the address of the most skilful Flycatcher. It is never 

 gregarious, and usually solitary, associating together only from the time of 

 pairing until the young are able to shift for themselves." Its wonderful song, 

 which is often heard in the depth of winter, has in it "the notes of the Purple 

 Finch, the Wood Thrush, and the Winter Wren, but blended into a silvery 

 cascade of melody, that ripples and dances down the mountain sides as clear 

 and sparkling as the mountain brook, filling the woods and valleys with ringing 

 music." Their nest, a loosely constructed pile of weeds and trash, is placed on 

 the ground, under an overhanging bank, or about the roots of trees, and con- 

 tains three or four eggs of grayish white spotted with pale brown. 



Passing over the second subfamily (CochoanitKB), which comprises only a 

 single genus and four Oriental species of purple and green Thrushes, we come 

 to the typical Thrushes (Turdincz), of which there are upward of two hundred 

 and fifty forms. 



Omitting a small number of West Indian forms known as Mockingbird- 

 Thrushes (Mimocichla), we may commence our consideration of this group with 

 the vast genus Planesticus (formerly Merula), the members of 'which are vari- 

 ously known as Blackbirds, Ouzels, etc. Although not very sharply differen- 

 tiated from the genus Turdus, with which it is merged by many authorities, 



