V1KEONID.E THE VIREOS. 191 



In its habits this species is nearly a counterpart of the White- 

 eyed Vireo, inhabiting, like that species, dense thickets or briei 

 patches. In Illinois it is confined to the prairie districts, and is 

 almost everywhere a much less common bird than V. noveboracensis. 

 The writer first met with it on Fox Prairie, in Kichland county, on 

 the 8th of June, 1871, being first apprised of its presence by its 

 very curious notes. Mr. Nelson found it in the same locality four 

 years later, but in 1883 the writer was unable to discover any of 

 the species during several weeks' search in the same place and 

 adjacent localities, all the thickets which it formerly inhabited hav- 

 ing given way to cultivated fields. Mr. Nelson's experience coincided 

 in the main with that of the writer, except that he found the spe- 

 cies so shy that only two were shot, while the writer had no difficulty 

 in shooting several, but was unable to find or secure them, owing 

 to the tangled briery growth in which they fell. Mr. Nelson says :* 



"Bather common in the dense patches of bushes on the prairie. 

 The males would appear on the top of a tall bush and utter a 

 queer song entirely peculiar, but so shy were they that at the first 

 alarm they would disappear. Although repeated efforts were made 

 to obtain specimens during the week we were there, only two were 

 shot." 



He subsequently (.June 23, 1875) obtained a single specimen near 

 Chicago. (See Bull. Essex Inst. Vol. VIII., 1876, p. 103.) 



* Bull. Essex Inst. ix, 1877, p. 48. 



