LXXVII 



Bell's Vikeo; Bell's Grebnlbt 

 633. Vireo belli belli 



Of the true Vireos this is the species most frequently- 

 seen and heard in the vicinity of Kansas City, Missouri, 

 but the White-eyed, the Eed-eyed and the Warbling 

 Vireos are also quite common summer residents. The 

 Warbling Vireo is a bird of high-tree branches, while 

 the others mentioned are shrubbery birds. 



Many of the bunches of small elms, blackberry briars 

 and other shrubbery in our city parks harbor one or 

 more pairs of these little five-inch olivaceous and whitish 

 songsters. They nest, usually, within two feet of the 

 ground and lay four white eggs marked with minute 

 brown specks. (Fig. 119.) 



Bell's Vireo is olive green on the back, sulphury yel- 

 lowish on the belly and has two whitish wing bars. In 

 this species there are no eye-bars or white circles around 

 the eyes. The male and female are alike. The bird is 

 insectivorous. 



Unless you weave your way into the tangle of under- 

 brush and keep close to the ground and look upward 

 through the leaves, you will rarely get more than a flitting 

 glimpse of this bird, although its curiosity will keep it 

 within a few feet of you all the time. Its subdued ven- 

 triloquist-like song keeps you guessing as to its location 

 but rest assured its little keen eyes are peeping from 

 behind a leaf at you all the while. It is restless and re- 

 mains in one position but a moment. 



The nest illustrated in this collection was suspended 

 from a blackberry briar and was a deep cup-like struc- 

 ture, in the make-up of which much lint and cottony plant 

 fibres had been used. There were four white eggs and 

 the bird was incubating when I found it. 



I visited the place every few days. Then, one day, 

 I peeped into the little nursery and beheld four ugly- 

 looking young Vireos. When I had first seen the nest 

 it had in addition to the eggs of the Vireo, one egg of the 



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