The Townsend Solitaire 
entrance with sprigs of sage, in order to oblige the birds to show them¬ 
selves, in seeking entrance, from the east. The female tried it first and 
she was much nonplussed over the situation. She returned again and 
again to the perch, which commanded both sides, but she sought entrance 
only in the accustomed place. Again and again she fluttered in front 
of the sage-twigs, and then, baffled, she would alight upon the ground and 
wrestle mentally with the difficulty. Finally, after at least half a dozen 
fruitless attempts, the mental gates appeared to open to her and she 
flashed in in a trice. Thereafter she made straight for the proper new 
entrance and had no difficulty. The male had quite a different and much 
more exasperating experience. He readily admitted the impossibility 
of finding entrance on the west, but he made a bad fist of it on the other 
side. The entrance slit was shaped as in the accompanying diagram: 
where P represents the perch, E the proper entrance, 
fJTLp and F a false entrance, too narrow for admission. 
The male sought entrance repeatedly at F. He 
worked at it frantically, and as often as he was foiled he returned, scolding 
vigorously. Again and again he returned to the charge, as often to be 
blocked at F. Finally, after fifteen minutes of intermittent endeavor, 
he found E and passed in easily. But on several occasions thereafter 
he tried F. On a later occasion, finding that the birds passed in and 
out too quickly for my photographic purposes, I blocked the top of E 
with sage but left room for entrance. The female accommodated herself 
readily to this change, but the male made hard work of it. He was so 
afraid of touching the brush that he crowded the shoulder of wood 
instead. Once inside, he had even greater difficulty in emerging, inso¬ 
much that on the second occasion I had actually to remove the obstruc¬ 
tion to prevent undue fright. It never occurred to either bird to 
attempt its removal, although this would have been very easy of 
accomplishment. Verily, we are all “human.” 
No. 154 
Townsend’s Solitaire 
A. O. U. No. 754 . Myadestes townsendi (Audubon). 
Synonyms.— Townsend’s Flycatching Thrush. Townsend’s Flycatcher. 
Description. — Adults: General color smoky gray, lighter below, bleaching 
on throat, lower belly, axillars and under tail-coverts; a prominent white orbital ring; 
wings and tail dusky; wing quills crossed by extensive tawny area originating at base 
of innermost secondary and passing obliquely backward—this appears in the closed 
wing as a spot at the base of the exposed primaries but does not reach nearer the 
edge of the wing than the fifth or sixth primary; another obscure tawny or whitish 
