84 TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE. 
mountain bird, not being found in lowlands. Except in coloring, it is in all respects 
a true counterpart of our eastern species. Mr. Ridgway states that he found this Blue- 
bird nesting in Virginia City, in June. Although the nests were found occasionally in 
the unused excavations about the mines, it preferred to build about the old buildings. 
At other places he found it common in similar locations, in July. On the East Hum- 
boldt Mountains it was very abundant, especially on the more elevated portions, where 
it nested among the rocks and, though more rarely, in the deserted excavations of 
Woodpeckers in the stunted pifion and cedar trees. According to his observations, it is 
generally very shy and difficult to obtain, seldom permitting a very near approach. In 
its habits it is much less arboreal than either the Common or Western Bluebird, always 
preferring the open mountain portions in the higher ranges of the Great Basin.— 
Dr. Woodhouse found these Bluebirds common in the vicinity of Santa Fé, New Mexico, 
where they breed about the houses in boxes put up for them. 
In regard to the song we are indebted to Mr. Ridgway for the following descrip- 
tion: “The common note of this Bluebird would, from its character, be at once recog- 
nized as that of a Bluebird. Its autumnal note, however, lacks entirely the peculiar 
plaintiveness so characteristic of that of our eastern species, and is much more feeble, 
consisting of a simple weak chirp. Like the S. mexicana, the S. arctica was also never 
heard to give utterance to anything resembling the lovely spring warbling of the S. sialis.”’ 
NAMES: Mounrain BLUEBIRD, Rocky Mountain Bluebird, Arctic Bluebird. —Gebirgs-Hiittensinger, Gebirgs- 
Blauvogel. 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Erythaca (Sialia) arctica Sw., F. B. A. (1831). SIALIA ARCTICA Nourr., Man. I, 
(1834). Sylvia arctica Aud. (1839). Sialia macroptera Brd. (1852). 
DESCRIPTION: ‘Greenish azure-blue above and below, brightest above; the belly and under tail-coverts 
white; the latter tinged with blue at the ends. Female showing blue only on the rump, wings, and 
tail; a white ring round the eye; the lores and sometimes a narrow front whitish; elsewhere replaced 
by brown.—Length 6.25 inches; wing 4.36, tail 3 inches.” (Ridgway). 
“TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE. 
Myadestes townsendii A. O. U. 
PLaTE XX. Fic. 4. 
i ORDER that we may become acquainted with one of our most remarkable birds, 
4 one of our most prominent songsters, we must visit the far West of our country, 
the region of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada.. Here, on the solitary 
mountain sides sparsely covered with cedars, and in the valleys and cajfions, far from 
the din and tumult of man, abounds TowNsEND’s SOLITAIRE, TOWNSEND’S FLYCATCHING 
THRUSH, or CLARINO, a very peculiar and highly attractive bird. 
It ranges from the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the western slope 
of the Sierra Nevada north to British Columbia, being everywhere a true mountain bird, 
