LAND BIRDS. 573 



■of May, while the hirger iijiuiher do not arrive in the niichlle counties before 

 the lOth of the month. It often lingers well into September, and Wood 

 and Frothingham record one killed in Alcona county September 20, 1903. 

 Nests with fresh eggs were taken by Trombley, IMonroe county, May 22, 

 1887; by Dr. Gibbs, at Kalamazoo, June 18, 1879; by Westnedge in 

 Kalamazoo county June 5, 1892, by Spicer in Genesee county j\Iay 17, 

 1888, and by Miss H. H. Wright at Saginaw, several times during the last 

 week in May, and on June 9, 1907. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Bill hooked at tip; rictal bristles evident; no spurious first i)rini:iry; two wliite wing-bars. 



Advilt (sexes alike) : Upper parts, from forehead to middle of back, bright olive-green; 

 scapulars, lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts ashy-gray more or less tinged with 

 olive-green; a conspicuous yellow stripe from nostril to eye, and a yellow ring about the 

 eye interruj)ted in front by a dusky loral spot; sides of head and neck otherwise olive-green; 

 entire chin, throat and t)reast liright yellow, tl)e remainder of under parts abruptly white, the 

 flanks sometimes washed witli grayisli; winus dark grayish, with two conspicuous white 

 wing-bars, the tertiaries l)roadly edged with wliite; tail dark gray, most of the feathers 

 edged with white, narrowly on the outer edges, more widely on inner edges; bill blackish 

 above, horn-blue below; iris brown. Young similar to adults, but colors not so bright 

 and markings not so sharply defined. 



Length 5 to 5.85 inches; wing 3 to 3.20; tail 2 to 2.30; culmen .40 to .50. 



259. Blue-headed Vireo. Lanivireo solitarius solitarius (Wilson). (629) 



Synonyms: Solitary Vireo, Blue-headed Greenlet. — Muscicapa solitaria, Wilson, 1810. 

 -^Vireo solitarius, Vieill., 1819, A. O. U. Check-list, 1886, and most authors. — Lanivireo 

 solitarius, Allen, 1869. 



Figure 134. 



Two white wing-bars, white throat and breast, yellow sides and flanks 

 and spurious first primary are common to the Blue-headed Vireo and the 

 White-eyed Vireo, but the latter has yellow lores and eye-ring, while these 

 are white in the Blue-headed Vireo. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America to the Plains, north to Hudson 

 Bay 'and Fort Simpson. South in winter to Guatemala; breeds from 

 northern New England and northern part of the lake states northward. 



This beautiful vireo is a not very common spring migrant throughout 

 the state, but is rather more abundant in the autumn. It is not known 

 to nest in the southern half of the state, unless we 

 accept Covert's statement that he found a nest 

 and eggs of this species at Ann Arbor July 4, 1871. 

 The builders of this nest, however, were not 

 preserved, and we are not aware that the nest has 

 ever been reported from any other place in the 

 state, although the birds undoubtedly breed in 

 the higher portions of the Lower Peninsula, as Fie. 134. solitary vireo. From 



,, . X r J.U TT T» • I Tvr r\ li Hoffman's Guide. Hough- 



well as m parts of the Upper Peninsula. Mr. O. B. ton, Mifflin & Co. 

 Warren states that they are seen all summer about 



Palmer, Marquette county, and the ITnivei'sity of Michigan Expedition 

 found the species in Ontonagon county July 27, 1904, where, however, 

 it may have been migrating at that time. On Isle Royale it was noted 

 only during migration, but of course is a summer resident. 



It arrives from the south about the first of May, the earliest record which 

 we have being that by Mr. Swales, who found it abundant at Detroit April 29, 

 1905. The average date of arrival at Ann ArJjor is given by N, A. Wood as 



