348 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



Trusting that tlie exodus was only local and teinj)oraiv, we watched 

 for the letuni of the birds with interest. 



The species evidently overlooked its Hamilton connection in 1886, 

 but it has since then been as common as foiinerly, watching silently 

 near the roadside for its favorite fare of beetles, mice, or small birds. 

 It is very common in the west, going as far north as Manitoba. In 

 the east it seems more rare, Mr. White not having vet observed 

 it at Ottawa, though he has looked for it during several seasons. 



Family VIREONID^. Vikkos. 



Genus VIREO Vikillot. 



Subgenus VIREOSYLVA Bonaparte. 



VIREO OLIA^\CEUS (Lixx.). 



250. Red-eyed Vireo. (624) 



Aliuvf, <)li\e-greeii ; urowu, ash, edged on caeli side with a hhiekish line, 

 below tliis a wliite supeiciliary line, below this again a dusky stripe through 

 the eye ; under parts, wliite, faintly shaded with olive along sides, and tinged 

 with olive on under wing and tail coverts ; wings and tail, dusky, edged with 

 olive outside, with whitish inside ; bill, dusky, pale below ; feet, leaden olive ; 

 eyes, red ; no spurious (luill. Length, .")]-(];} ; wing, 'ii'^y, : tail. '2}^-2^ : bill, 

 about § ; tarsus, / . 



H.\B. — Kasteru Xortli Auu'iica. to the Rocky Mountains, north to the 

 Arctic Regions. 



Xest, pensile, fastened by the rim to a horizontal fork, ten to twenty-five 

 feet from the ground ; a thin light stiiictui-e, composed of bark strips, pine 

 needles, wasp's nest, paper and tine grass, felted and apparently pasted 

 together. 



Eggs, three to five. ]mw white, niatked willi tiiic (hiik nildish-lndwii spots 

 towai-d the larger end. 



A veiv common sununcr resident is the Red-eyed Vireo, and his 

 loud, clear notes are heaid in the outskirts oi the woods at all hours 

 of the day. • Even duiing t-he sultry month of July, when most other 

 songsters .sing only in the morning or evening, the Hed-eye keeps on 

 all day with tireless energy. In Ontario it is the most numerous 

 species of the family, arriving early in May and leaving in September. 

 In the early part of tlie season its food consists entirely of insects, 

 which it is at all times i-eady to capture, either on the wing or 

 otherwise. In the f.dl it partakes of raspberries, and the berries of 

 the poke weed and of other- wild plants, with the juice of which its. 



