VIBEONID^: VIEEOS, OR GREENLETS. 



333 



the liquid strains of this modest vocalist. Not born to " waste its sweetness on the desert 

 air," the warbling vireo forsakes the depths of the woodland 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'soni ? (To Wm. Swainson. Fig. 194.) Western Warbling Vireo. " Similar 

 to V. qilvus, but smaller ; colors paler j bill more depressed; upper mandible almost black; 

 2d quiU much shorter than 6th." Rocky Mts. to the Pacific, U. S. This Western form has 

 been described as distinct, but the characters assigned will not be found constant. It is simply 

 a dull-colored race, like many other bu-ds of this region. 



Fio \9A — r. (/. .twain soni, nat. size. (From Baird.) 



Fig. 195. — V. flavlfrons, nat. size. (From Baird.7 



176. V. fla'vifrons. (Lat. /am/s, yellow ; /rows, fi'ont.) Yellow-throated Greenlet. Above, 

 rich olive-green, crown the same or even brighter, rump insensibly shading into bluish-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 the 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 quiU. 

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

 stout, highly-colored species, curiously resembling Icteria virens, common in the woods of the 

 Eastern U. S., and adjoining British Provinces; W. only to the edge of the plains ; winters in 

 Florida and southward ; breeds in all its U. S. range. Its proper name may be V. ochroleucus. 



177. V. solita'rius. (Lat. solitarius, solitary ; solus, alone. Fig. 196.) 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 

 of 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 

 5.2.5-5.75; extent 8.50; wing 2.75-3.00; tail 2.25-2.33; bill about 0.40, stout, nearly 0.20 

 deep at base ; spurious quill 0.50-0.66 long, about i as long as 2d primary. Young and fall 

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

 Eastern U. S. and Canada ; not rare, but not so common as olivaceus, flavifrons, or novebo- 

 racensis ; inhabits woodland. 



178. V. s. cas'sini. (To John Cassin.) Cassin's Greenlet. Scarcely diflferent; said to be 

 duller and more brownish-olivaceous ; under parts tinged with buff or ochrey where solitarius 

 is pure white ; loral line and eye-ring impurely whitish. Arizona and California. (Not at all 

 like V. plumbeus, with which it is geographically associated.) 



solitarius, nat. size. (From Baird.) 



