VIEE0NID2E : VIREOS, OR GREENLETS. 



329 



Fig. 187. — Generic details of Myiadestes (M. townsendi; bill and 

 foot nat. size, wing and tail |). (From Baird.) 



Tail-feathers widening a little toward the end, the tail thus becoming squarish or fan-shaped; 

 even or little rounded at their ends. 



Myiadestin^. — Bill very short, much depressed, widened at base, deeply cleft. Legs 

 weak. Tail-feathers tapering, the tail being thus rendered somewhat cuneate, and double- 

 r.-iindcd at end. 



68. MYIADES'TES. (Gr. fiv'ia, 

 muia, a fly, and fdearris, edes- 

 tcs, an eater.) Fly-catching 

 Thrushes. Characters of the 

 subfamily as above given. 



1«9. M. townsendi. (To J. K. 

 Townsend.) Townsexd's Fly- 

 catching Thrush. ^ 9 : Gen- 

 eral color dull brownish-ash, 

 paler below, bleaching on the 

 throat, lower belly, and crissum. 

 Wings blackish, the inner sec- 

 ondaries edged and tipped with 

 white, nearly all the quills ex- 

 tensively tawny or fulvous at 

 the base, and several of the in- 

 termediate ones again edged ex- 

 ternally toward their ends with the same color. In the closed wing, the basal tawny shows 

 upon the outside as an oblique spot in the recess between the greater coverts and the bastard 

 quills, separated by an oblique bar of blackish from the second tawny patch on the outer webs 

 of the quills near their ends. TaU like the wings (the middle pair of feathers more nearly like 

 the back) ; the outer feather edged and broadly tipped, the next one more narrowly tipped, with 

 white. A white ring around the eye. Bill and feet black. Eyes broAvn. Length about 8 

 inches; wing and tail about equal, 4.00-4.50; the latter forked centrally, graduated laterally; 

 bill 0.50; tarsus 0.75; middle toe and claw rather more. Young: Speckled at first, like a 

 very young thrush ; each feather vnih a triangular or rounded spot of dull ochraceous or 

 tawny, edged with blackish. Western U. S., from the eastern foot-hills of the Rocky Mts. 

 to the Pacific ; N. to British Columbia. A bird not less strange and unlike anything seen in 

 the east than the Phainopepla ; inhabiting woodland and shrubbery, feeding on insects and 

 berries, and capable of musical expression in an exalted degree. Nest on the grfmnd or in 

 rubbish near it, loosely made of grasses; eggs about 4, bluish-white, freckled with reddish- 

 brown, 0.95 X 0.67. 



14. Family YIREONID.^ : Vireos, or Greenlets. 



Small dentirostral Oscines, related to the Shrikes, with hooked 

 bill, 10 primaries and extensively coherent toes. Bill shorter 

 than the head, stout, compressed, distinctly notched and hooked 

 at tip ; rictus with conspicuous bristles ; nostrils exposed, over- 

 hung with a scale, but reached by the small bristly erect frontal 

 feathers. Toes soldered at base for the whole length of the basal 

 joint of the middle one, which is united with the basal joint of 

 /^ the inner and the two basal joints of the outer, all these coherent 



Fio 188. — Warbling Vireo, re- phalanges very short. (Lateral toes unequal in the genus Vireo.) 

 ducefl. (From Tenney.) Tarsus equal to or longer than the middle toe and claw, scutel- 



late in front, laterally undivided, except at extreme base. Wings moderate, of 10 primaries, of 



