VIREO. © 199 
B. Ale breves, cauda via longiores aut paulo breviores; remex primus magnus. (Vireo.) 
a. Ale acutiuscule. 
a’. Pileus niger. 
13. Vireo atricapillus. 
Vireo atricapillus, Woodhouse, Pr. Ac. Phil. vi. p. 601; Baird, U.S. Bound. Surv., Zool., Birds, 
p. 12°; Rev. Am. B. i. p. 353; Baird, Brew. & Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 383+; Lawr. Mem. 
Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 272°; Deane, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, iv. p. 58°; Brewster, Bull. Nutt. 
Orn. Club, iv. p. 997; Coues, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, iv. p. 193, t. 1%. 
“ Supra olivaceo-virescens, capitis lateribus et pileo nigris; alis et cauda supra nigricantibus olivaceo limbatis, 
tectricibus alarum viridi-albo bifasciatis; oculis albo conspicillatis ; subtus albus, hypochondriis olivaceis ; 
subalaribus et crisso(?) flavicantibus; rostro nigro, pedibus plumbeis. Long. tota 4°75, ale 2°12, caude 
1-95.” (Descr. ex Baird, Brew. & Ridgw. i. p. 383, compilata.) 
“© (potius av. juvenis). Capitis lateribus et pileo obscure schistaceis nec nigris; subtus ochraceo tincta. 
(An avis alia?)” (Deser. exempl. ex Mazatlan, Mexico, ex Baird, Brew. & Ridgw. i. p. 383). 
Hab. Nortu America, South-western Texas !??°7.—Muxico, Mazatlan (Grayson +5)? 
The only actual claim of this species to a place in this work rests upon a specimen 
obtained at Mazatlan by the late Col. A. J. Grayson. This is a female bird, differing 
from the male in having the head dull slate-colour instead of black. At the time that 
they placed this specimen here, the authors of the ‘ History of North-American Birds’ 
expressed a doubt as to their identification of it+, These doubts are much strengthened 
by the fact, since brought to light’, that the sexes in this species do not materially 
differ in colour. The Mazatlan bird, therefore, must either belong to a different 
species, or be in a state of plumage not yet satisfactorily explained. That the true 
V. atricapillus will be found along the northern frontier of Mexico can hardly be 
doubted ; but as yet it has only been met with in a very limited district on the 
Texan side of the Rio Grande valley. Up to 1879 hardly any thing was known of 
V. atricapillus, some three or four skins being all that had been obtained during the 
twenty-eight years that had elapsed since its discovery. But in that year not only were 
more specimens obtained, but its nest and eggs were also discovered, and observations 
made on its habits, which now render its history fairly complete. The original specimens 
of this species were obtained on the Rio San Pedro near El Paso by Dr. Woodhouse! ; 
and shortly afterwards another was shot by Mr. J. H. Clark of the Boundary Survey? 
The recent acquisitions are from Messrs. Ragsdale and Norris, an account of whose 
captures is given by Mr. Ruthven Deane °, and from Mr. Werner, to whom Mr. Brewster 
acts sponsor’. Dr. Elliott Coues also reverts to the same subject, giving a plate of 
two birds and their nest, the latter taken from a drawing by Mr. Werner’. The nest 
is described as pendent, as usual in the members of this family, and composed of dried 
leaves and grass woven together with spiders’ webs, and lined with fine grass and 
rootlets. ‘The eggs are described as being pure white, without spots of any kind. 
