Jan., 1919 THE SOLITAIRES OF SHASTA 15 
the camera. The bird does come back at last, but she will not suffer any motion 
on my part. The light plays out and the game is off. The presence of the male, 
too, with his low creaks of solicitude has undoubtedly made the female more sen- 
sitive. The taking of the nest after all,—this is a heart-breaking matter; but Sol- 
itaires are more common than we are. 
Nest a very frail, careless affair of scattered and spread sticks covering an 
area a foot square. Nest-hollow, carefully lined with grass obtained at some dis- 
ance, 3 inches across by 114 deep. 
The most important point to emphasize in the situation is the near presence 
of snowdrifts half encircling the tree under which the nest is placed, as, of course, 
the photographs show. The significance of this did not fully occur to me until in 
the afternoon Bert showed me the nest which is to be (D. V.) V149/3-16 T. S. 
Fig. 2. NEST AND Eacs or TOWNSEND SOLITAIRE; V148/4-16. 
The bird flushed lghtly from a situation almost exactly like that of V148/4-16, 
and then fell to bug-catching. In this pursuit she again and again alighted upon 
the snow, securing there, no doubt, benumbed or dead insects—a sort of Leucos- 
ticte of the lower levels. Snowbanks, then, are, perhaps, an agreeable feature of 
Solitaire environment. We spend the afternoon looking up Solitaire prospects, 
and hear three singing males, all believed to be new. 
V149/5-16 Townsend Solitaire, alt. 6900 feet, July 13,1916: Nest found 
Monday, July 10, left for egg complement; revisited yesterday, as mentioned. 
My hat is off to Mr. Vrooman for having made this location, for the crooked- 
based tree which gives the nest shelter is simply one of ten thousand which clothe 
the mountain; and the male does nothing more by his presence than to set one to 
looking anywhere within 200 yards. Nevertheless these exact conditions have to 
be met: shade, shelter, outlook, and the near presence of snow-banks. The sharp 
falling-away of the ground immediately below this tree, 1. e., after the nesting 
