582 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
the Pinyon Mountain region in October, 1906, we found Solitaires 
common and singing a surprisingly full rich song. At San Rafael, 
where they were common late in October, 1908, Mr. Bailey often 
heard them “singing up on the juniper covered ridges back of town, 
where ripe, sweet berries of the one-seeded juniper (Juniperus mono- 
sperma) were abundant. Having been frosted, the berries were soft 
and juicy and as sweet as honey, with only a slight resinous flavor to 
which the birds did not seem to object” (MS). Solitaires were common 
in the junipers at Glenwood at the foot of the Mogollons early in 
November, 1906, and one was found by Mr. Ligon, November 27, 
1913, in the San Mateo Mountains, Socorro County, at about 6,500 
feet, singing softly in some bushes, although it had several cedar 
berries in its throat. 
In the days of the Wheeler Survey, in the fall, at the Old Crater 
forty miles south of Zuni, Mr. Henshaw found Solitaires “congregated 
in very large numbers about a spring of fresh water, the only supply 
for many miles around”; and he says that hundreds were to be seen 
sitting on the bare volcanic rocks, apparently too timid to venture 
down and slake their thirst while the party was camped near by. 
Their song, he said “is occasionally heard even in November and 
December, and is veiy sweet, but not so full and varied as during the 
vernal season” (1875, p. 232). 
The noted song, heard at its best on the nesting grounds in the 
high mountains, is often given from the top of a tall conifer overlooking 
snowbanks. Here in the strong pure mountain air it rings out in rare 
harmony with the spirit of the mountains. While the songs of the 
thrushes suggest the soft, solemn music of dim cathedral aisles, that of 
the Solitaire suggests the loud ringing notes of a rapt cornetist of the 
peaks. Even the late fall songs, heard in the junipers, were clarion, 
musical outbursts, with runs and liquid turns. In the Yosemite, 
Grinnell and Storer state, “no other bird . . . except perhaps the 
American Dipper, seems to have quite such a revival of song in the 
fall as does the Solitaire.” Even in early winter it gives “occasional 
outbursts of song fully as melodious as those of summer and more 
impressive in the prevailing chill and silence” (1924, p. 596). The 
flight song of the Solitaire, Mr. Saunders considers the best of any 
bird he knows. As he describes it, “The bird soars high above the 
rocky peaks and ridges till almost invisible; and the glorious, loud 
and ringing song descends to the listener, each note as clear and pure 
and full of life and vigor as the mountain air itself” (1910, p. 199). 
Additional Literature.—Anthony, A. W., Condor, V, 10-12, 1903 (nest).— 
Dawson, W. L., Condor, XXI, 12-21, 1919 (nest).— Hanford, F. S., Condor, 
XIX, 13-15, 1917.— Mailliakd, Joseph, Condor, XXVIII, 127, 1926 (singing in 
autumn).— Miller, O. T., Upon the Tree-Tops, 205-226, 1897.— Pierce, W. M. 
Condor, XVIIT, 181-182, 1916 (nest-V 
