188 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



as I have heard it, bears no resemblance to that of any other 

 Vireo. It is a prolonged and very peculiar ditty, repeated at fre- 

 quent 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. 



"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 cob- 

 webs 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." 

 (BREWEK.) 



SUBGENUS Vireo VIEILLOT. 



Vireo VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept. i, 1807, 83. Type, Muscicapa noveboracensis GMEL. 



"SUBGEN. CHAR. Wings short and rounded, a little longer than the tail, equal to it, 

 or shorter. First primary distinct and large, from two fifths to half or more the length of 

 the second, shorter or not longer than the eighth." (Hist. N. Am. B.} 



The two species of this subgenus which are known to occur in 

 Illinois may be distinguished by the following characters : 



1. V. noveboracensis. Two distinct white bands on wing. Lores dusky, bordered 

 above by a yellow streak; a yellow orbital ring. Above olive-green, the nape 

 usually ashy; lower parts white, the sides greenish yellow. Iris white, in adults. 



2. V. bellii. Only one white band on wing, and this indistinct. Lores and orbital 

 ring white, the former with a dusky streak. Above grayish olive, more greenish 

 posteriorly ; beneath buffy white, the sides and crissum tinged with sulphur-yellow. 



Vireo noveboracensis (Grnel.) 



WHITE-EYED VIREO. 



Popular synonyms. White-eyed Greenlet; Little Green Hanging-bird; Chickty-beaver. 



Muscicapa noveboracensis GMEL. S. N. i, 1788, 947. 

 Vireo noveboracensis BP. 1824. Aur>. Orn. Biog. i, 1831, 328, pi. 63; Synop. 1839. 161; B. 



Am. iv, 1842, 146. pi. 240. NUTT. Man. i, 1832, 306. BAIBD, B. N. Am. 1858. 328; Cat. 



N. Am. B. 1859, No. 248; Review, lhC6, 354. COUES, Key, 1872, 122; Check List. 1873, 



No. 129; 2d ed. 1882, No. 181; B. N. W. 1874, 100; B. Col. Val. 1878, 520.-B. B. & R. Hist. 



N. Am. B. i, 1874, 385, pi. 17, fig. 4. RIDGW. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 143. 

 Vireo cantatrix WILS. Am. Orn. ii, 1810, 26G, pi. 18, fig. 6. 



HAB. Eastern United States, west to edge of Great Plains; winters in Gulf States, 

 Cuba. Bermudas (resident), and eastern Mexico, south to Guatemala. 



