VIREONID^ — THE VIREOS. 191 



In its habits this species is nearly a counterpart of the White- 

 eyed Vireo, inhabiting, hke that species, dense thickets or brier 

 patches. In Ilhnois it is confined to the prairie districts, and is 

 almost everywhere a much less common bird than V. noveboracensis. 

 The writer first met with it on Fox Prairie, in Eichland county, on 

 the 8th of June, 1871, being first apprised of its presence by its 

 very curious notes. Mr. Nelson found it in the same locality four 

 years later, but in 1883 the writer was unable to discover any of 

 the species during several weeks' search in the same place and 

 adjacent locahties, all the thickets which it formerly inhabited hav- 

 ing given way to cultivated fields. Mr. Nelson's experience coincided 

 in the main with that of the writer, except that he found the spe- 

 cies so shy that only two were shot, while the writer had no difficulty 

 in shooting several, but was unable to find or secure them, owing 

 to the tangled briery growth in wliich they fell. Mr. Nelson says:* 



"Eather common in the dense patches of bushes on the prairie. 

 The males would appear on the top of a tftll bush and utter a 

 queer song entirely peculiar, but so shy were they that at the first 

 alarm they would disappear. Although repeated efiorts were made 

 to obtain specimens during the week we were there, only two were 

 shot." 



He subsequently (June 23, 1875) obtained a single specimen near 

 Chicago. (See Bull. Essex Inst. Vol. VIII., 1876, p. 103.) 



* Bull. Essex Inst. ix. 1877, p. 48. 



