VIREONIDJE: VI RE OS, OR GREENLETS. 



363 



ing atricapillus) being distinguisliable with certainty, though differing in size with that of the 

 parent, and somewhat in position, according as the parents are birds of woodland or shrubbery ; 

 it would be useless, therefore, to give particular descriptions for each species. Next after 

 Warblers, Greenlets are the most delightful of our forest birds, though their charms address 

 the ear and not the eye. Clad in simple tints that harmonize with the verdure, these gentle 

 songsters warble their lays unseen, while the foliage itself seems stirred to music. In the quaint 

 and curious ditty of the White-eye — in the earnest, voluble strains of the Red-eye — in the 

 tender secret that the Warbling Vireo confides in whispers to the passing breeze — he is insen- 

 sible who does not hear the echo of thoughts he never clothes in words. 



Analysis of Species and principal Subspecies. 



Primaries apparently 9 (the Ist rudimentary and displaced), (a) 

 Primaries evidently 10 (the 1st short or spurious), (b) 



(a) Tliroat yellow flavifrons 



— white ; crown ashy, not black-edged, hardly contrasting with back philudelphicus 



— black-edged ; back olive ; with maxillary streaks calidris barbatulus 



— no maxillary streaks ; crissum merely yellowish 



oliiaeews 

 — bright yellow 



Jiaiiiiridis 



(b) Crown black. Eggs white atricapillus 



— not black; the 1st quill at least i as long as 2d, and wing '2.50 long vicinior 



— not J as long as 2d, or wing not 2.50 long (c) 



(c) Wing-bands wanting : coXoraXXori s,\T:m\a,T to philadelphiciis gilvus 



— present ; length over 5.00 ; back olive, contrasting with ashy-blue crown solitarius 



— plumbeous, crown scarcely different pluinbeus 



— 5.00 or less ; wing =; tail, both about 2.25 ; 1st quill = J the 2d pusillus 



— > tail ; crown ashy, chin and superciliary line white . . . belli 



— olive, chin white, superc. line yellowish . . novebor. 

 — and imder parts yellowish . . . huttoni 



{Subgenus Vireosylvia Bonajmrte.) 



V. cal'idris barba'tulus. (Gr. Ka\i8pis or (TKoXiSpis, kalidris or sJcalidris, the name in Aris- 

 totle of some small spotted water-bird known to the Greeks, of no applicability to the present 



species ; Lat. barbatulus, having a little beard. 

 Fig. 218.) Black-whiskered Greenlet. 

 Whip-tom-kelly. Similar to olivaceus ; dis- 

 tinguished by a narrow dusky maxillary line, 

 or line of spots, on each side of the chin ; bill 

 longer, 0.75-0.80 ; proportion of quills slightly 

 different. (See the figs.) Cuba, Bahamas, and 

 casually in Florida. V. altiloquus is the West 

 Indian stock -form, to which I have hitherto 

 Fig. 218. - V. c. barbatulus, nat. size. (From Baird.) referred our Whip-tom-kelly ; but it now ap- 

 pears to be itself but a form of the South American V. calidris ; hence the change of name from 

 former eds. of the Key. 



V. oliva'ceus. (Lat. olivaceus, olive-colored. Fig. 219.) Red-eyed Greenlet. The 

 Preacher. Above, olive-green ; crown ash, edged on each side with a blackish line, below 

 this a white superciliary line, below this again a dusky stripe through eye ; under parts white, 

 faintly shaded with greenish -yellf)w ahnig sides, and tinged with the same on under wing- and 

 tail-coverts ; wings and tail dusky, the feathers edged with olive outside, with whitish inside : 

 bill dusky above, pale below; feet leaden-blue; eyes red: no dusky maxillary streaks; no 

 apparent spurious quill. Little different with age, sex, or season ; young and fall birds the 



