Townsend's Flycatcher or Solitaire. 319


than the male and cried “off,” which irritated the latter; and

was he not the self-constitnted guardian of the young? She was

now a stranger, and must not be allowed to remain in their

vicinity and must go, and if she won’t go she must die. It was

but a modification of a principle not rare amongst birds.


Although he no longer feeds them, the male still plays the

part of Defender of the Fledgelings, and is constantly bristling

up to the front of the aviary and breathing out threatenings and

slaughter through the wire against the female who, sitting but a

few inches distant, casts longing eyes towards her offspring, for

her maternal instincts would seem to be far from dormant—and

thus we must leave them.



TOWNSEND’S FLYCATCHER OR SOLITAIRE.


(,Myiadestes townsendi).


By Hubert D. Astley, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


Not much can be said as yet of this decidedly interesting

bird, of which I possessed a specimen, now to be seen in the

New Bird House at the London Zoological Gardens, where it

is, I fancy, new to the collection.


His native home, or at any rate, one of them, is California,

and he is credited with sweet elarionette-like notes. I believe

he is called the clarionette bird by the German ornithologists.


In size about that of a lark, perhaps somewhat smaller

(comparisons are difficult), with the broad head, short bill and

tarsi of the typical Flycatchers. The tail is longisli. His

general colour is a rich soft grey, with a gleam of white in the

wings, and a ring of the same encircling the eyes.


In a cage he is inclined, poor fellow, to sit still for many

half hours at a time, because I suppose that if he were at liberty

he would fly forth from his perch, catch an insect, and return

again. Flycatchers are not hoppers—they dart forth and they

glide, so that really our friend from California should not be

caged, but placed in a large aviary where his darting and gliding

powers may be enjoyed.


This Flycatcher—“Solitaire” they call him in his native

land—is not difficult to keep, being a great fruit-eater, and fruit



