392 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



only one indistinct band on the wing, instead of two sharply defined ones. 

 The bill is much snuiller, and tlie tail longer, than in pn/h-ns. V. belli is 

 less ashy above and less jmre white beneath, the sides nmch more yellow- 

 ish ; the wing is also longer, and the tail much shorter. V. vicinior is 

 much larger, with the wing longer than the tail, instead of shorter ; the ash 

 above has a bluish instead of a greenish cast ; the lores are wholly grayish- 

 white, etc. 



HjVBITS. The Least Vireo is a recently described species of its genus, and 

 one in regard to whose history comparatively little has been ascertained. It 

 was first met with at Cape St. Lucas by Mr. Xantus, and described by Dr. 

 ("ones in 186G. Dr. Cones assigns as its habitat Lower and Southern Cali- 

 fornia, Sonera, and Arizona, at least as far north as Fort Whipph^ Dr. 

 Cooper also found it at Fort Mohave. Dr. Coues met with it fifty miles south 

 of Fort Whiitjile, where he found it l)rceding abundantly. He gives no in- 

 formation in regard to its habits. Dr. Cooper states that he found it ratlier 

 comniiin along the u]i])er jiart of Mohave lliver, in June, IHiil ; and in the 

 following spring, about April 20, they began to arrive at San Diego in con- 

 sideralile nundiers. In its habits Dr. Cooper thinks it greatly resemliles F. 

 gihus, thiiuj^h it dillers entirely in its song. The notes of those that he heard 

 singing resembled very nuich those of the Polioptilas uttering a quaint mi.x- 

 ture of the notes of the Wrens, Swallows, and Yireos. They also seem to 

 possess more or less of imitative powers. At Sacramento he saw and heard, 

 in the willows along the river, individuals which, from their peculiar notes, 

 he had no doubt were of this species, but he did not verify his conjectures. 

 His suppositions were confirmed later by the observations of Mr. llidgway, 

 who states that he found tliese birds the most abundant as well as the most 

 characteristic Greenlet in the vicinity of Sacramento. It is a species, he 

 adds, easily recognized, being in all respects quite di.stinct from any other. 

 The character of its notes, as well as its habits, show it to Vie a true Vireo. 

 Its song, though weaker, bears a great resemblance to that of the White-eyed. 

 A nest of this species was found by him near Sacramento. It was placed 

 about three feet from the ground, in a low busli in a copse of willows. Like 

 all the nests of tiiis genus it was pensile, being attached to and suspended 

 from the twigs of a branch. 



Two nests of this interesting species were also obtained near Camp ( haiit, 

 Arizona, in LS67, by Dr. E. Palmer. They are wrought like all the nests of 

 this kind, below the small forked branches of a tree, suspended from the ex- 

 tremity of its twigs. They each have a diameter of about three and a lialf 

 inches, a height of two, with a cavity an inch and a half deep and two wide. 

 The external portion, like the nests of the K hclli, is wrought with woven 

 hemp-like vegetable fibres, strongly bound around the ends of the twigs and 

 covering the entire exterior. Within tiiis is placed a strong, firmly made 

 basket, composed of slender strips of bark and long, fine, and flexil)le pine- 

 needles, with a lining of finer materials of the same. In one of these nests 



