The nest and eggs remain to be obtained.

Vireosylvia gilvus, Cassin.

WARBLING GREENLET.

Muscicapa gilva, Vieill. Ois. I, 1807, 65, pl. xxxiv. Vireo gilvus, Bon. Obs. Wils. 1825, No. 123.—Aud. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxviii.—Ib. Birds Am. IV, pl. ccxli.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 335.—Samuels, Birds N. Eng. 273. Vireosylvia gilva, Cassin, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1851, 153.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1856, 298 (Cordova); (?) 1858, 302 (Oaxaca; June) (perhaps V. swainsoni).—Baird, Rev. Am. B. 342. Muscicapa melodia, Wils. Am. Orn. V, 1812, 85, pl. xlii, fig. 2.

Sp. Char. (No. 1,017 ♀) Above olive-green, strongly glossed with ashy; the head and nape above more distinctly ashy, but without decided line of demarcation behind, and without dusky edge; rump pure olive. Stripe from nostrils over eye to nape, eyelids, and space below eye, creamy-white. A rather dusky post-ocular and loral spot, the latter not extending to the bill. Under parts white, with tinge of greenish-yellow (occasionally of creamy fulvous or buff), especially on breast; sides more olivaceous. Crissum and axillars scarcely more yellowish. Quills and rectrices wood-brown, edged internally with whitish, externally with olivaceous, except perhaps on longer primaries. Edge of wing white. Larger wing-coverts grayish-brown, with paler edges, and no trace of olivaceous. Bill horn-color above, paler below.

First quill very short or spurious; second about equal to, generally rather longer than sixth; third longest; fourth, then fifth a little shorter.

Fresh specimen: Total length, 5.33; expanse of wings, 8.35; wing from carpal joint 2.85. Prepared specimen: Total length, 4.80; wing, 2.75; tail, 2.25. Sexes alike. Iris brown.

Hab. Eastern North America to Fort Simpson. Cordova and Oaxaca only southern localities recorded. Not West Indian.

A specimen (No. 54,262) from Orizaba is, in positively every respect, exactly intermediate between this species and V. josephæ of Costa Rica, Ecuador, etc. (See footnote on page 360.) The crown is brown, decidedly darker than, and different in tint from, the back, but less so than in josephæ; the back is less olive than in the latter, and less gray than in the former. The lower parts are more yellow than in gilvus, and less so than in josephæ, the superciliary stripe whiter and extending farther back than in the former, and less pure white and shorter than in the latter, etc.

Habits. The Warbling Vireo has only a slightly less extended distribution than the Red-eyed, being found throughout all Eastern North America, as far north as Fort Simpson and Selkirk Settlement, and west to the Missouri River, and breeding as far south as Louisiana. It is stated by Audubon to be found on the Columbia River, but in this he probably referred to the Western race, V. swainsoni. That writer never observed this species in Louisiana or Kentucky, nor in the maritime part of Georgia, and its manner of entering the United States he was unable to ascertain. Where it moves to in the winter is also unknown, none having been met with in the West Indies, and only at a few points in Mexico, Cordova, Oaxaca, and the State of Vera Cruz. It was, however, found breeding at Calcasieu, Louisiana, by Mr. Würdemann.

It breeds abundantly from Virginia to Nova Scotia, and throughout the Northwestern States. West of the Rocky Mountains it is replaced by a closely allied species, the V. swainsoni. This Vireo, more than any other of its genus, if not exclusively, is to a large extent a resident of villages, towns, and even cities. It is by far the sweetest singer that ventures within their crowded streets and public squares,—although Mr. Cassin gives his preference to the notes of the Red-eyed,—and the melody of its song is exquisitely soft and beautiful. It is chiefly to be found among the tall trees, in the vicinity of dwellings, where it seems to delight to stay, and from their highest tops to suspend its pensile nest. It is especially abundant among the elms on Boston Common, where at almost any hour of the day, from early in the month of May until long after summer has gone, may be heard the prolonged notes of this, one of the sweetest and most constant of our singers. Its voice is not powerful, but its melody is flute-like and tender. Throughout the last of May, and in June and July, their charming song may be heard amid the din of the city from earliest dawn till nightfall, and rarely ceases even in the noontide heat, when all other birds are silent. It is ever in motion, while thus singing; and its sweetest notes are given forth as it moves among the tree-tops in search of insects. It is not only one of our most constant singers, but it remains musical almost until its departure for the South in October.

The Warbling Vireo builds its nest usually in more elevated positions than any others of this family. For the most part in the vicinity of dwellings, often over frequented streets, they suspend their elaborately woven and beautiful little basket-like nest, secure from intrusion from their human neighbors, and protected by the near presence of man from all their more dreaded enemies. Audubon narrates, in an interesting manner, the building of their nest by a pair of these birds on a poplar-tree, near his window, in Camden, N. J. It was suspended between the body of the tree and a branch coming out at an acute angle. The pair were at work, morning and evening, eight days, first attaching slender blades of grass to the knots on the branch and the bark of the trunk, and thence working downward and outward. They varied their materials, from time to time, until at last he traced them, after a prolonged absence, to a distant haystack, from which they brought fine, slender, dry grasses, with which they completed and lined their nest.

The nests of the Warbling Vireo, while they resemble closely those of the other species in all the characteristics of this well-marked family, are yet, as a rule, more carefully, neatly, and closely built. They are usually suspended at the height of from thirty to fifty feet, in the fork of twigs, under and near the extremity of the tree-top, often an elm, protected from the sun and storm by a canopy of leaves, and quite out of reach of most enemies. They vary little in size, being about two inches in height and three and a half in their greatest diameter, narrowing, toward their junction with the twigs, to two inches. They are all secured in a very firm manner to the twigs from which they are suspended by a felting of various materials, chiefly soft, flexible, flax-like strips of vegetable fibres, leaves, stems of plants, and strips of bark. With these are interwoven, and carried out around the outer portions of the nest, long strips of soft flexible bark of deciduous trees. They are softly and compactly filled in and lined with fine stems of plants.

The eggs are usually five in number, and, like those of all the Vireos, are of a brilliant crystal-white, sparingly spotted at the larger end with markings of dark brown, and others of a lighter shade. They are less marked with spots than usual in the genus, and are often entirely unspotted, and pure white. Occasionally, however, they are found with well-marked blotches of reddish-brown. They vary in length from .75 to .70 of an inch, and average about .55 in their breadth.

WESTERN WARBLING GREENLET.

Vireo swainsoni, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 336 (Pacific coast).—Elliot, Illust. Birds N. A. I, vii. Vireosylvia swainsoni, Baird, Rev. Am. B. 343. Vireosylvia gilva, var. swainsoni, Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 116. Vireo bartramii, Swainson, F. B. A. II, 1831, 235 (in part; spec. from Columbia River?).

(No. 5,321 ♂.) Similar to V. gilva, but smaller; colors paler. Bill more depressed. Upper mandible almost black. Second quill much shorter than sixth. Total length, 4.75; wing, 2.71; tail, 2.35; difference between tenth quill and longest, .58; exposed portion of first primary, .58, of second, 1.82, of longest (measured from exposed base of first primary), 2.10; length of bill from forehead, .56, from nostril, .29, along gape, .65; depth of bill, .13; tarsus, .70; middle toe and claw, .56; hind toe and claw, .43.

Hab. United States, from Rocky Mountains to Pacific coast.

In the present bird the bill is darker in color, much smaller, and more depressed, the depth at the base being less than the width, instead of being equal to it as in var. gilvus. The wing is more rounded, the second quill much shorter than the sixth, generally shorter or but little longer than the seventh. In var. gilvus, the second quill is about equal to the sixth. The second quill is about .30 of an inch (or more) shorter than the longest in swainsoni, while in gilvus it is only about .20 shorter. The feet of swainsoni are weaker, and the colors generally paler and grayer. The iris, according to Coues, is dark brown.

Young birds in autumnal plumage have the crown decidedly ash, the sides more greenish; the wing-coverts pass terminally into a light brownish tint, producing an inconspicuous band.

Habits. This Western representative of the Warbling Vireo is found throughout the western portions of our Union, from the Great Plains to the Pacific, and from Arizona to the extreme northern boundary of Washington Territory.

Dr. Cooper characterizes this as a lively and familiar songster. It arrives, he states, at San Diego about April 10, and reaches Puget Sound toward the middle of May, occupying nearly all the intermediate country throughout the summer. It frequents the deciduous trees along the borders of streams and prairies, coming into gardens and orchards with familiar confidence, wherever cultivation has reclaimed the wilderness. Like its Eastern prototype, its cheerful and varied song is heard all day long until quite late in the autumn. They too build their nests in the shade-trees of the parks of busy cities, singing ever their delightful strains, unconscious of the busy and noisy crowd that throngs the neighboring streets.

Mr. Ridgway, who observed the habits of this species in Utah and Nevada, speaks of it as the characteristic Vireo of the West. It was found by him in all the fertile localities, and was one of the most common birds in the wooded regions. He found it very generally distributed through the summer, inhabiting the copses along the streams of the mountain cañons, and the open groves of the parks, as well as the cottonwoods and willows of the river valleys. In the fall the berries of a species of the cornel that grows along the mountain streams constitute its principal food. Its notes and manners are identical with those of the Eastern species.

The nests of this species are not distinguishable, except in the necessarily varying materials, from those of the Eastern birds. In position, size, and shape they are the same. The eggs, four or five in number, are white, spotted with brown and reddish-brown, and measure .78 by .58 of an inch. The spots are somewhat darker than those of the V. gilvus, and the shape more of an oblong-oval, in all that I have seen. But this difference may disappear in the examination of a larger number.

A nest found by Mr. Ridgway near Fort Churchill, Nevada, June 24, was suspended from the extremity of a twig of a sapling of the cottonwood, in a copse of the same growing in a river-bottom. It has a height of two and a half inches, and a diameter of three. It is composed externally of an elaborate interweaving of spiders’-webs, willow and cottonwood down, and strong cord-like strips of fine inner bark. These are strongly bound around the twigs from which the nest is suspended. It is one of the most elaborately interwoven, homogeneous, and well-felted nests of this bird I have ever met with. Another nest, from Parley’s Park, Utah, obtained June 28, differs in having the external portion woven almost exclusively of fine strips of bleached bark, and is lined with fine wiry grasses. In each of these the eggs were four in number, all oblong-oval in shape, but much more pointed at one end in the latter nest.

This species was found breeding in Napa Valley, Cal., by Mr. A. J. Grayson, and at Fort Tejon by Mr. Xantus.

Subgenus LANIVIREO, Baird.

a. Spurious primary well developed,—.60 or more long, .10 broad.

Nape and side of neck plumbeous; upper tail-coverts olive-green. Crissum tinged with yellow, but none on side of throat, nor across breast. Wing, 3.05; tail, 2.40; bill, from nostril, .27; tarsus, .66. Hab. Eastern Province of United States, straggling westward to the Pacific Coast, especially in its migration southward into Mexico, where it penetrates in winter as far as Guatemala … var. solitarius.

Above continuous olive-brown; below ochraceous-white, with a buffy tinge across breast, and deeply olivaceous along sides. Crissum tinged with yellow. Wing, 2.80; tail, 2.15; bill, 30; tarsus, 66. Hab. Pacific Province of United States, straggling in autumn eastward into the Middle Province … var. cassini.

Above continuous ashy-plumbeous. Beneath pure white, ashy along sides, and very slightly so across breast. Wing, 3.25; tail, 2.50; bill, .30; tarsus, .66. Hab. Middle Province of United States, south, in winter, through Western Mexico to Colima … var. plumbeus.

b. Spurious primary very minute,—about .30 long by .04 wide.

First quill spurious, rather more than one fifth the second, which is intermediate between the fifth and sixth; third longest.

Fresh specimen: Total length, 5.40; expanse of wing, 9.00. Prepared specimen: Total length, 5.25; wing, 2.95: tail, 2.35.

Hab. United States, from Atlantic to Pacific; Cape St. Lucas. Not recorded from Southern Rocky Mountains, where replaced by L. plumbeus. South to Mexico and Guatemala. Vera Cruz (winter, Sumichrast). Very rare in Cuba.

Spring specimens show sometimes a gloss of plumbeous on the back, obscuring the olive, the contrast of colors being greater in the autumnal and young birds. Sometimes the crissum appears nearly white. The length of the spurious primary varies considerably, from .45 to .75 of an inch.

In autumn the colors are similar, but slightly duller and less sharply defined, while the back is considerably tinged with ashy.

Habits. The Solitary Vireo appears to be found, irregularly, throughout the United States. Nowhere abundant, so far as I am aware, it seems to be more common in California than on the Atlantic, while there are also large tracks of intervening territory in which we have no knowledge of its presence. On the Atlantic it has been met with from Georgia to the Bay of Fundy. In Massachusetts it has been found in a few restricted localities; in one or two of them, they are as abundant as the White-eyed. Mr. Dresser found it in Texas, near San Antonio, late in the autumn, and early in spring, but none remained to breed. Mr. Boardman gives them as a summer visitant at Calais, but not common, and Professor Verrill makes a similar statement for Western Maine, where it arrives in the second week of May. According to Mr. Allen, it reaches Western Massachusetts by May 1, but it is there quite rare. A few are presumed to stop and breed.

In California, Mr. Gambel states that it is quite abundant in the latter part of summer, and throughout the winter, frequenting low bushes and thickets. Dr. Heermann also frequently met with it. Both at the East and the West it is undoubtedly only migratory to about the 40th parallel, and does not, except in mountainous localities, breed south of that line. Professor Baird found it breeding in the South Mountains, near Carlisle, Penn., in May, 1844. It occurs in Guatemala in the winter.

These birds were found breeding at Fort Tejon by Mr. Xantus, and at Vancouver by Mr. Hepburn.

Mr. Ridgway met with a few in September, in the thickets along the streams flowing from the Clover Mountains.

This species was taken in winter by Mr. Boucard, at Talew, in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Mr. Audubon’s statement that this bird is rather abundant, and that it breeds in Louisiana, is undoubtedly incorrect, and his description of its nest and eggs belongs rather to the Yellow-throated, and agrees with none that I have ever seen of this species. That he found them abundant in Maine, and traced them as far north as Pictou, Nova Scotia, is more probable. Dr. Bachman speaks of this species becoming each year more abundant in South Carolina, coming in February and remaining through March.

Mr. Nuttall, who met with this species on the Columbia, about the beginning of May, describes its song as a plaintive, deliberate warble, intermediate between the song of the olivaceus and the flavifrons. Mr. Burroughs describes the love-notes of these birds as being inexpressibly sweet and tender in both sexes. The song of the male, as I have heard it, bears no resemblance to that of any other Vireo. It is a prolonged and very peculiar ditty, repeated at frequent intervals and always identical. It begins with a lively and pleasant warble, of a gradually ascending scale, which at a certain pitch suddenly breaks down into a falsetto note. The song then rises again in a single high note, and ceases. For several summers the same bird has been heard, near my house in Hingham, in a wild pasture, on the edge of a wood, always singing the same singular refrain, during the month of June.

Mr. Nuttall found a nest of this species suspended from the forked twig of a wild crab-tree, about ten feet from the ground. The chief materials were dead and withered grasses, with some cobwebs agglutinated together, externally partially covered with a few shreds of hypnum, assimilating it to the branch on which it hung, intermingled with a few white paper-like capsules of the spiders’ nests, and lined with a few blades of grass and slender root-fibres.

In the summer of 1870 a pair built their nest in a dwarf pear-tree, within a few rods of my house. They were at first very shy and would not permit themselves to be seen at their work, and suspended all labor when any one was occupied near their chosen tree. Soon after the construction of the nest two Cowbird’s eggs were deposited, which I removed, although the female only laid two of her own before she began to sit upon them. By this time she became more familiar, and would not leave her nest unless I attempted to lay hands upon her. She made no complaints in the manner of the White-eyed, nor sought to attack like the Yellow-throated, but kept within a few feet, and watched me with eager eyes, until I left her. Unfortunately, her nest was pillaged by a Black-billed Cuckoo, and I was unable to observe her feed her young, as I had hoped to do.

The eggs are of an oblong-oval shape, moderately pointed at one end, and of a white ground, less crystalline than in the other species of its kind. They are spotted pretty uniformly over the entire egg with dots of dark red and reddish-brown. They are usually five in number.

Lanivireo solitarius, var. cassini, Baird.

CASSIN’S VIREO.

Vireo cassini, Xantus, Pr. A. N. S. Phil. May, 1858, 117.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 340, pl. lxxviii, fig. 1; Review Am. B. I , 1865, 347 (sub V. solitaria), Ridgway.

Hab. Fort Tejon, Cal. (Xantus); West Humboldt Mountains, Nevada (Ridgway).

Since the type of this variety was obtained, two other specimens (Nos. 53,418 ♀ and 53,419 ♂, September, 1867; R. Ridgway) have been secured by the United States Geological Survey of the 40th Parallel, in command of Mr. Clarence King, in the West Humboldt Mountains, Nevada. These specimens are even more different from true solitarius than is the type of this race, showing that it is really distinct, as a variety. In the same thickets at the same season, perfectly typical specimens of V. solitarius were obtained; the latter having, no doubt, come from their more northern summer home on their passage southward into Mexico.

In the Humboldt Mountain specimens the crown shows no trace of ash, and is even darker and more brownish than the back. In fact, the relation of the V. cassini to V. solitaria is an almost exact parallel to that of V. josephæ to V. gilvus, as far as coloration is concerned, in each case the extreme being widely different, but connected by specimens showing intermediate characters.

Nothing is known of the habits of this race.

Lanivireo solitarius, var. plumbeus, Coues.

LEAD-COLORED VIREO.

Vireosylvia plumbea, Coues, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phila. 1866 (Fort Whipple, near Prescott, Arizona).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 119.—Elliot, Illust. Birds N. A. I, vii. V. (Lanivireo) plumbea, Baird, Rev. 349.

Sp. Char. (No. 37,011.) Whole upper parts and sides of head uniform plumbeous; the lower part of the back with a faint wash of olivaceous. A white line from bill to and around eye; a dusky line from corner of eye to bill. Sides of breast and flanks plumbeous, paler than the back; the flanks very slightly tinged with olive-green. Rest of under parts white; the axillars ashy, edged with white. Wings above with two conspicuous white bands; the innermost quills edged externally and the longer ones internally with white, the latter edged externally with light ash. Bill and legs dark plumbeous, “Iris hazel.” Tail-feathers narrowly edged all round with white, narrowest internally, and increasing from central to lateral feathers. Upper tail-coverts clear ash.

As the specimen in finest plumage (described above) is moulting the quills, the measurements are taken from another (37,010). In this the first quill is not quite one third the second, which equals the sixth, the third and fourth longest.

Hab. Southern Rocky Mountains; East Humboldt Mountains, Nevada (Ridgway). In winter to Colima, Mexico.

While the pattern of coloration is precisely similar to that of Lanivireo solitarius, the difference in the colors appears to be occasioned merely by removing, as it were, the yellow stain, which on the plumbeous produces the olive-green tinge, and exists in a purer tint along the sides, leaving, essentially, only clear plumbeous and pure white; there is, however, in the most typical specimens, always a faint tinge of green on the rump, and a stain of yellow along the side. Though identical with solitarius in most of its proportions, the wings and tail are considerably longer than in the average of that form.

Lanivireo flavifrons, Baird.

YELLOW-THROATED VIREO.

Vireo flavifrons, Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 85, pl. liv.—Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, pl. cxix.—Ib. Birds. Am. IV, pl. ccxxxviii.—Cassin, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1851, 149.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1857, 227 (Vera Cruz); 1860, 257 (Orizaba).—Sclater & Salvin, Ibis, I, 1859, 12 (Guatemala).—Cab. Jour. III, 468 (Cuba; winter).—Gundlach, Cab. Jour. 1861, 324 (Cuba; rare).—Cab. Jour. 1860, 405 (Costa Rica). Vireo (Lanivireo) flav. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 341. Vireosylvia (Lanivireo) flavifrons, Baird, Rev. 346. Muscicapa sylvicola, Wils. Am. Orn. II, 1810, 117, pl. vii, f. 3.

Sp. Char. (No. 28,390.) Head and neck above and on sides, with interscapular region, bright olive-green. Lower back, rump, tail, and wing-coverts ashy. Wings brown, with two white bands across the coverts, the outer edges of inner secondaries, and inner edges of all the quills, with inside of wing, white. Outer primaries edged with gray, the inner with olive. Tail-feathers brown, entirely encircled by a narrow edge of white. Under parts to middle of body, a line from nostrils over eye, eyelids, and patch beneath the eye (bordered behind by the olive of neck) bright gamboge-yellow; rest of under parts white, the flanks faintly glossed with ashy. Lores dusky. Bill and legs plumbeous-black.

No spurious primary evident: second quill longest; first a little shorter than third.

Length, 5.80; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.00; difference of longest and innermost quills, .90; tarsus, .73.

Hab. Eastern United States, south to Costa Rica. Veragua (Salvin). Very rare in Cuba.

Autumnal birds, perhaps more especially the young, are more glossed with olivaceous, which invades the ashy portions, and tinges the white.

These birds reach New England about the 10th of May, and usually have their nests constructed early in June. Their habits, in all essential respects, are the same as those of all its family. They are somewhat confiding and trustful of man, are readily approached, and soon become so well acquainted with those among whom they have a home as to fearlessly come to the windows of the house in pursuit of spiders or flies, and even to enter them. In the latter case they cannot readily make their exit, and soon lose their self-possession, beating their heads against the walls and ceiling in vain attempts to get out, unless caught and released. In one instance a young bird, that had entered my barn-chamber, became so entangled in cobwebs, around his wings and feet, as to be unable to escape again. When taken in the hand, and his meshes one by one picked out from about his feet and quills, he was very docile, made no resistance or outcry, nor any attempt to escape, until he was entirely freed from his bonds, although it required some time and care to accomplish it. When entirely freed from these clogs, and permitted to go, he flew away very deliberately to a short distance, and occupied himself with dressing his disordered plumage.

The nest of this species is also a pendent structure, and hemispherical in shape. It may always be readily distinguished from any other nest of this family by the profusion of lichens and mosses with which its outer portion is adorned and covered, giving it the appearance of a large moss-covered knot.

Mr. Nuttall describes a nest of this bird, found by him suspended from the forked twig of an oak, near a dwelling-house, as coated over with green lichens, attached very artfully by a slender string of caterpillars’ silk, the whole afterwards tied over by almost invisible threads of the same, so nicely done as to appear to be glued on. The whole fabric was thus made to resemble an accidental knot of the tree, grown over with moss. Another nest, observed by the same writer, was fixed on the depending branches of a wild cherry, and was fifty feet from the ground. So lofty a position as this is probably very unusual. I have never met with any higher than ten feet from the ground.

The food of this Vireo is chiefly insects, and in the breeding-season is altogether so. Later in the season they mingle with these various kinds of small berries.

The eggs of this species vary from .95 to .88 of an inch in length, and from .65 to .60 in breadth. Their ground-color is white, often with a very perceptible tint of roseate when fresh. In this respect they differ in a very marked manner from the eggs of any other of this genus, except, perhaps, the barbatula, and may thus always be very easily recognized. They are more or less boldly marked with blotches of a dark roseate-brown, also peculiar to the eggs of this species, though varying greatly in their size and depth of color.

This Vireo winters, in great numbers, in Central America, and was largely represented in the collection of Dr. Van Patten from Guatemala. It was also found at Pirico, in Colombia, South America, by Mr. C. W. Wyatt. It occurs in abundance as far to the west as Grinnell, Iowa, where Mr. W. H. Parker found it to be a very common summer resident.

Vireo, Vieill., Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 83. (Type, Muscicapa noveboracensis, Gm.)