NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 345 



known in Los Angeles county, from its frequent appearance in the 

 orchards and gardens, and from its favorite pastime of pulling off 

 the heads of canaries, wherever a cage is hung in the open air. My 

 friend, Mr. Arnold Boyle, states that in the region about Banning, 

 California, this bird feeds largely on lizards, which it often impales on 

 thorns and leaves them sticking there. The nest is usually built in 

 some scrubby tree this being like the structure made by ludovicianus 

 or excubitorides . 



Five sets of eggs in my cabinet, from Banning, San Gorgonia 

 Pass, California, do not differ at all from those of the Loggerhead 

 and White-rurnped Shrikes. They exhibit the same variations in size 

 and coloration. 



[623.] Vireo altiloquus barbatulus (CAB.) [137-] 



Black-whiskered Vireo. 



Hab. Cuba, Bahamas, and casually to Southern Florida. 



This bird, which is common to Cuba and the Bahamas, is entitled 

 to a place in our avifauna on account of its occasional occurrence in 

 Southern Florida; it has several times been taken in the region of 

 Charlotte Harbor. From the supposed resemblance of its notes, it is 

 called Whip-tom-kelly. The bird looks very much like the Red-eyed 

 Vireo, but has a longer bill and other characters which distinguish 

 it. Like other Vireos, the Long-billed Greenlet builds a beautiful, 

 pensile, cup-like nest, which is attached by the brim and suspended 

 from forked twigs in trees and bushes, ranging in height from five to 

 twenty feet. The materials used in its construction are dry grasses, 

 shreds of bark, cotton, lichens, and spider's web ; the lining being 

 soft, cotton-like fibres. The walls of the structure are not only very 

 thick but neatly and firmly interwoven. 



The eggs are three or four in number, white, with a pinkish hue, 

 speckled and spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with reddish-brown. 

 The average size is .78 x .55. 



624. Vireo olivaceus (LINN.) [135.] 



Red-eyed Vireo. 



Hab. Eastern North America, as far north as Hudson Bay, etc.; west to the Rocky Mountain 

 region; south in winter through Eastern Mexico and Central America to Northern South America. 



The Red-eyed Greenlet is a common species in Eastern United 

 States, where it breeds abundantly in the months of May and June. 

 It frequents woodland and is especially fond of sycamore groves along 

 streams. A tireless, joyful songster, singing throughout the day nearly 

 all summer long. Its voice is often the only sound heard in the woods 

 in sultry summer days. Compared with the song of the Warbling Vireo, 

 it is shorter, louder, and more vigorous. The nest of this species is 



