FOOD HABITS OF THRUSHES. 3 



TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE 



( Myadestes totvnsendi. ) 



Townsend's solitaire, a bird of the far West, is a resident of high 

 mountains and lonely gorges. It is partial to running streams and 

 often builds its nest just above a rushing mountain torrent. It 

 ranges from Alaska through the Sierras south to San Bernardino, 

 Cal., and through the Rockies to Arizona and New Mexico, and 

 occasionally farther east. The species is not evenly distributed over 

 this region, but is restricted to such high mountainous portions as 

 afford its favorite surroundings. As long as it retains these habits 

 the bird will have little or no effect upon the products of husbandry, 

 and its food can have only a scientific interest. The song of this 

 species is said to be at times the finest of any of the thrush family. 



As this bird is comparatively rare in settled regions only 41 

 stomachs are available for determining the character of its food. 

 The most southerly and easterly one was taken in Texas, the most 

 westerly in California, and the most northerly in Wyoming. They 

 are distributed through all the months of the year, although April 

 and May are represented by but one each and December by but two. 

 Every other month has three or more. An investigation based upon 

 such limited material can be considered only as preliminary, but 

 will serve to show some of the more important elements of the food. 

 This was made up of 35.90 per cent of animal matter to 64.10 of 

 vegetable. 



Animal food. — The animal food consists of insects and spiders, 

 with a few hair worms {Gordius) found in one stomach. These 

 last may have been contained in the insects eaten. Among insects, 

 beetles constitute the second largest item (10.74 per cent), but 5.89 

 per cent of these were the useful predatory ground beetles (Cara- 

 bidse). This is not a good showing, but too few stomachs have been 

 examined to allow sweeping conclusions. As evidence that this can 

 not be taken as a fair sample of the bird's food habits it may be 

 stated that all of these beetles were taken in January and October. 

 The one stomach collected in January contained 95 per cent of Carab- 

 idae — the only animal food in it — and 93 per cent of the contents of 

 one October stomach Avas made up of the same material. Evidently 

 in these cases the bird had found a colony of the beetles and filled 

 up with them. Had they constituted the usual diet of the species 

 they would have appeared in other months and in more stomachs, 

 but in smaller quantities. Other families of beetles are eaten so 

 sparingly as to be of little importance. Scarabseidse stand the next 

 highest, but they amount to less than 2 per cent of the food. 



Lepidoptera (caterpillars) make the largest item in the food of 

 Myadestes. Eaten much more regularly than beetles, they probably 



