VIREONID^: VIREOS, OR GREENLETS. 



331 



character of the bill, — all those Oscines, as wrens, creepers, or titmice, that show much 

 collision of the toes, having an entirely different bill. Some of the weaker-billed species might 

 be carelessly mistaken for warblers ; but there is no excuse for this, nor for confounding them 

 with any of the little clamatorial flycatchers. The Vireos were long supposed to possess either 

 9 or 10 primaries. But that the important character of number of primaries — one marking 

 whole families as we have seen — should here subside to specific value only, seemed suspicious; 

 and the fact is that all the species really have 10, only that, in some instances, the 1st prunary 

 is rudimentary and displaced, lying concealed outside the base of the second quill. The N. Am. 

 species are distributed over the temperate portions of this continent, and several of them are 

 abundant birds of the Atlantic States, inhabiting woodland and shrubbery. They are exclu- 

 sively insectivorous, and are therefore necessarily migratory in our latitudes. They build a 

 neat pensile nest in the fork of a branchlet, and commonly lay four or five white, speckled eggs. 

 All are alike in this respect, the nest and eggs of none of the species (excepting atricapillus) 

 being distinguishable with certainty, though differing in size with that of the parent, and some- 

 what 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 the warblers, 

 the 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 eai-nest, voluble strains of the red-eye — in the tender 

 secret that the warbling vireo confides in whispers to the passing breeze — he is insensible 

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



Analysis of Species. 



Primaries apparently 9 (the 1st rudimentary and displaced), (a) 



Primaries evidently 10 (the Ist short or spurious), (b) 



(a) Throat yellow flavi/rons 176 



— white ; crown ashy, not black-edged, hardly contrasting with back philculelphicus 173 



— black-edged ; back olive ; with maxillary streaks barbatulus 172 



— no maxillary streaks ; crissum merely yellowish 



oiivaceus 170 

 — bright yellow 



flaviviridis 171 



(b) Crown black atricapillus 185 



— not black ; spurious quill at least J as long as 2d, and wing 2.50 long vicinior 180 



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



(c) Wing-bands wanting : coloration as in philaclelphicus gilvus 174, 175 



— present; length over 5.00; back olive, contrasting with ashy-blue crown . . solitarius 177,178 



— plumbeous, crown scarcely different plumbeus 179 



— 5.00orle8s; wing=:tail,bothabout2.25; l8tquill = Jthe2d . , . pusillus 184 



— > tail ; crown ashy, chin and superc. line white . . . belli 183 



— olive, chin wht. , superc. line yell. . novebor. 181 



— and under parts yell'sh . . huttoni 182 



V. oliva'ceus. (Lat. oiivaceus, olive-colored. Fig. 189.) Red-eyed Greenlet. Above, 

 olive-green ; crown ash, edged on each side with a blackish line, below this a white super- 

 ciliary line, below this 

 again a dusky stripe 

 through eye ; under parts 

 white, faintly shaded 



with greenish - yellow / \ /\ / \ v\, ^ *> „— ^ 



along sides, and tinged / \ ^"^ / \ ^^^^--^g ^_lr /f^^^^N/!^^^^^ \ 



with the same on under yh.nj^ \ /^f^^^^ ^ \ ^\\\\\f/// / / ^ 



wing- and tail-coverts; ^^^Ki^ /!p^\ ^ ^"^"^ ' * WWv/// // V 



wings and tail dusky, ' ^ / v 



the feathers edged with Fio. 189. — K. o/ii-ocew*, nat. size. (From Baird.) 



