VIREONID.E: VIREOS, OR GREENLETS. 



365 



rival the tenderness and softness of the liquid strains of this modest vocalist. Not born to 

 " waste its sweetness on the desert air," the- Warhling Vireo forsakes the depths of the wood- 

 land for the park and orchard and shady street, where it glides through the foliage of the tallest 

 trees, the unseen messenger of rest and peace to the busy, dusty haunts of men. 

 V, g. swain'soiii ? (To Wm. Swainson. Fig. 223.) Western Warbling Greenlet. 

 " Similar to V. gilrus, but smaller; colors paler; bill more depressed; upper mandible almost 

 black; 2d quill much shorter than 6th." Eocky Mts. to the Pacific, U. S. This Western form 

 has long been described as distinct, but the characters assigned will not be found constant or 

 always appreciable. It is simply a dull-colored race, like many other birds of this region. It 

 is ignored in both A. 0. U. Lists; retained in Ridgv^., Man., 1887, p. 472; and now left here 

 with this explanation. 



FiQ. 223. — r. ff. su-ainsoni, nat. size. (From Baird.) Fig. 224. — T'. flavifrons, nat. size. (From Baird.) 



{Subgenus Lanivireo Baird.) 



V. fla'vifrons. (Lat. flavus, yellow ; frons, front. Fig. 224.) Yellow-THROATED Green- 

 i.ET. Above, rich olive-green, crown the same or even brighter, rump insensibly shading into 

 bUiish-ash ; below, bright yellow, belly and crissum abruptly white, sides anteriorly shaded 

 with olive, posteriorly with plumbeous ; extreme forehead, superciliary line and ring round eye, 

 yellow ; lores dusky ; wings dusky, with inner secondaries broadly white-edged, and two broad 

 white bars across tips of greater and median coverts ; tail dusky, nearly all the feathers com- 

 pletely encircled with white edging; bill and feet dark leaden-blue; no apparent spurious quill. 

 Length 5.75-6.00 ; extent 10.00 ; wing 3.00; tail only about 2.25. A large, stout, highly- 

 colored species, curiously resembling Icteria virens, common in Eastern U. S. and adjoining 

 British Provinces ; W. to edge of the plains ; winters in Florida and southward to Colombia ; 

 breeds in all its N. Am. range. Its proper name may be V. ochroleucus. 

 V. solita'rius. (Lat. solitarius, solitary ; solus, alone. Fig. 225.) Blue-headed Green- 

 let. Solitary Greenlet. Above, olive-green ; crown and sides of head bluish-ash in 



marked contrast, with a broad white line from 



nostrils to and around (not beyond) eye, and a 

 dusky loral line ; below, pure white, flanks 

 washed with olivaceous, and axillars and cris- 

 sum pale yellow; wings and tail dusky, most 

 t>f the feathers edged with white or whitish, and 

 two conspicuous bars of the same across tips 

 of middle and greater coverts ; bill and feet 

 blackish-plumbeous; iris brown. Length 

 5.25-5.75; extent 8.50; wing 2.75-3.00 ; tail 2.25-2.33; bill about 0.40, stout, nearly 0.20 

 deej) at base; spurious quill 0.50-0.66 long, about ^ as long as 2d primary. Young and fall 

 specimens more brightly colored. A stoutly-built species, known at a glance by the bluish 

 cap. Eastern U. S. and Canada, N. to Hudson's Bay and Great Slave Lake ; S. in winter 

 to Guatemala; breeds from southern New England and the northern tier of States northward, 



Pig. 225. — V. solitarius, nat. size. (From Baird.) 



