530 HISTORY OF THE 



cup-shaped. The exterior, with its roughened aspect, produced 

 bj the projecting catkins, is a rather imposing sight. 



"The female adjusts the materials while the. male is busy in 

 fetching them. On the completion of the structure, which is 

 the work of three days, the female, on the succeeding day, be- 

 gins to deposit, at the rate of one egg per day, her complement 

 of eggs, which requires from three to four days, according to the 

 number laid. On the ensuing day incubation takes place and 

 continues from ten to eleven days, and is the sole labor of the 

 female. While thus occupied, the male, like a dutiful husband, 

 supplies her with nourishment. 



"Like its near congeners, the female of this species is very 

 unsuspicious, and lacks timidity. Persons may pass and repass 

 underneath the nest, which is mostly placed ten feet from the 

 ground, without exciting distrust or creating alarm. But when 

 an effort is made to violate this confidence by hostile intentions, 

 the female glides silently out of the nest and does not exert her- 

 self in the least to ward off an attack; but the male, when not 

 absent on foraging business, is close by the nest and ready by 

 his valor to resent an injury or deter an assault. With open bill 

 and vehement scolding, ho hazards his own life. 



"Its song differs from that of any other Vireo. It is a pro- 

 tracted and peculiar ditty, which is heard at irregular intervals, 

 and begins with an animated warble, which gradually increases 

 in sound until a certain pitch is attained, when it breaks down 

 to a falsetto note, then rises again, and ultimately ceases. 



"The eggs are five in number, oblong oval, and slightly 

 pointed at one end; the ground color is a transparent white, 

 llesh colored in unblown specimens, and chiefly marked with 

 reddish brown spots about the larger end. They measure .77 

 inch in length and .52 in breadth," 



Subgenus VIREO ViEiLiiOT. 



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

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

 the second, shorter or not longer than the eighth." 



