222 BULLETIN 197, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Island, Lulu Island, and other parts of the Fraser Kiver Delta, east 

 to New Westminster and Coquitlam and south to Ladner, Single 

 individuals or small parties recorded as far afield as Portland, Oreg. 

 (1924), Bellingham, Wash. (1927 or earlier), Chilliwack, British 

 Columbia (1930 or earlier), near the head of Lake Washington 

 ( 1929) , and Vancouver Island (1937) . 



Egg dates. — British Columbia : 6 recoi-ds, April 28 to June 2. 



China : 2 records, May 29 and July 4. 



Family VIREONIDAE : Vireos 



VIREO ATRICAPILLUS Woodhouse 



BLACK-CAPPED VIREO 



HABITS 



This well-marked and handsome vireo was discovered by Dr. S. W. 

 Woodhouse while attached to Capt. L. Sitgreaves's expedition down 

 the Zuni and Colorado Rivers. He took two specimens, both males, 

 near the source of the Rio San Pedro in w^estern Texas on May 26, 

 1851. About three years later a third specimen was taken by J. H. 

 Clark, one of the naturalists of the Mexican Boundary Connnission, 

 not far from the same locality. Not much more was learned about it 

 until William Brewster (1879) got in touch with Edmund Rick- 

 secker and W. H. Werner, who had acquired three sets of eggs, taken 

 in Comal County, Tex., in 1878. Mr. Werner gave Mr. Brewster 

 considerable information about this, then very rare, vireo. He found 

 them in the northwestern part of Comal County, along the Guadaloupe 

 River. "They were not A^ery plenty; I noticed during my rambles 

 ten to twelve specimens in a radius of about ten miles, in the course 

 of six weeks. The peculiar song of the male first attracted ray at- 

 tention, and as soon as I saw the bird I was sure that it belonged to 

 the Vireo genus. They seemed to prefer mountainous districts; at 

 least I always found them in such localities. They frequented low 

 brushwood, and built their nests from three to four feet above the 

 ground." 



Since then, much has been learned about the distribution and habits 

 of the black-capped vireo. It is now known to breed from south- 

 western Kansas, southward through Oklahoma and southwestern 

 Texas, and to winter in Mexico at least as far south as Sinaloa. 



In Kansas, Col. N. S. Goss (1891) found them quite common in 

 summer in the deep ravines in the gypsum hills. "These birds are 

 very local in their distribution, and, until of late, very little has been 

 known in regard to their habits. They inhabit the oak woods upon 

 the u])lands, and the bushes and trees in the ravines on bluffy prairie 

 lands." 



