THE MOUNTAINEER WAEBLER. 
105 
elevated regions^ afford an inexpressible sensation of delight 
to the mind of the solitary traveller/^ 
Like the Solitaire of Jamaica, this bird, the Mountaineer 
Warbler {BracJiypteryx montana, Horsfield), is a plain-phi- 
maged bird, delighting in mountain-ranges covered with 
luxuriant vegetation and gloomy thickets, where the Doctor 
occasionally observed it, in its short sallies amongst the 
openings of the forest. It has the general structure of the 
redstart and wheatear, but differs from them particularly in 
having a very short, blunt wing, and in its tarsi being more 
slender. This shortness of wing prevents it taking long 
flights; it is chiefly met with on the lowest branches of trees, 
or on the earth, and finds in the dense forests which it fre- 
quents, an abundant supply of the larvse of insects and worms, 
which constitute its chief food"^. 
The nests of at least two species of an Australian genus, 
belonging to this group, are remarkable for their site. Mr. 
Gould has described them in his great work. He says All 
those who have rambled in the Australian forests must have 
observed, that in their more dense and humid parts, an 
atmosphere peculiarly adapted for the rapid and abundant 
growth of mosses of various kinds is generated, and that 
* Zoological Researches in Java, No. 7. 
