THRUSHES, SOLITAIRES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. 467 
tipped with white ; under parts gray, tinged with brown on lower belly. 
Adult female: similar, but without black on head. Young: like female, 
but with browner wash and black of adult male appearing gradually. 
Length: 4.15-4.50, wing 1.90-2.00, tail 2.15-2.25. 
Distribution. — From southern California along the Pacific coast of Lower 
California. 
Nest. — As described by Anthony, in fork of a weed, 2£ feet from the 
ground, made of shreds of weeds and grass stalks lined with rabbit hair. 
Eggs: 4, bluish green, lightly spotted and wreathed around larger end with 
reddish brown. 
FAMILY TURDID-ffi : THRUSHES, SOLITAIRES, BLUE¬ 
BIRDS, ETC. 
KEY TO GENERA. 
1. Plumage largely or wholly blue.Sialia, p. 475. 
1'. Plumage largely gray or brown. 
2. Under parts reddish or yellowish brown. 
3. Chest with a dark band . .. Ixoreus, p. 473. 
3'. Chest without dark band . Merula, p. 472. 
2'. Under parts white, buffy, or grayish. 
3. Tail white basally, black terminally .... Saxicola, p. 475. 
3'. Tail not white basally or black terminally. 
4. Wings with two light bars. Myadestes, p. 467. 
4'. Wings plain. Hylocichla, p. 468. 
GENUS MYADESTES. 
754. Myadestes townsendii (Aud.). Townsend Solitaire. 
Bill short, flattened, widened at base, deeply cleft; legs weak; tail 
feathers tapering. Adults : brownish 
gray, paler beneath; wings with two 
whitish wing bars, bases of primaries 
and secondaries buffy or yellowish 
brown; tail feathers with outer web 
and tip of inner web grayish white. 
Young: wings and tail as in adult; rest of plumage, including wing cov¬ 
erts, conspicuously spotted with buff. Length: 7.80-9.50, wing 4.35-4.85, 
tail 4.15-4.70. 
Distribution. — Breeds in mountains mainly in Canadian zone from Brit¬ 
ish Columbia south to Zacatecas, Mexico, and from the Black Hills to the 
Pacific; winters south to southern Arizona and northern Lower Califor¬ 
nia. 
Nest. — On the ground, on logs or stumps, on banks of streams or among 
rocks, bulky, made largely of sticks and pine needles. Eggs: 3 to 6, whit¬ 
ish, spotted with reddish brown. 
The name Myadestes is associated with the choicest spots of the 
mountain heights. In the Sierra Nevada we found the birds on their 
nesting ground on the granite knob above Donner Pass, at 7900 feet. 
They evidently had a nest somewhere along a steep, wooded stream 
bed, which was flanked with bare granite, from which woodchucks 
whistled and conies barked. But while nutcrackers, Richardson 
Fig. 597. 
