302 BULLETIN 19 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL IMUSEUM 



ern Central America but lias not been recorded south of Nicaragua. 

 In Guatemala it is abundant through the winter months. Avoiding 

 extremes of altitude, it yet spreads over a wide vertical range, from 

 2,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level. In December and January I found 

 it rather abundant among the shade trees of the coffee plantations on 

 the Pacific slope, at 3,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level. At higher 

 elevations it frequents the forests of oak, alder, pine, and arbutus. 

 During the year I passed on the Sierra de Tecpan in the Department 

 of Chimaltenango, I found it wintering in small numbers between 

 8,000 and 9,000 feet. True to its name soUtarius, it never forms com- 

 panies of its own kind; yet it is not entirely a hermit, for a single 

 blue-headed vireo is often met in one of the mixed flocks of small 

 birds that are so conspicuous a feature of the highlands during the 

 winter months. The nucleus of each flock is made up of the exces- 

 sively abundant wintering Townsend warblers, and about this gathers 

 a motley assemblage of Avarblers of other kinds, vireos, flycatchers, 

 woodhewers, hairy woodpeckers, etc. Only with extreme rarity will 

 the blue-headed vireo which has attached itself to a flock tolerate the 

 presence of a second individual of its kind. 



"On the Sierra de Tecpan, the blue-headed vireo arrived on October 

 10, 1933. My latest spring date for the same year was April 28 ; but 

 after the 19tli I saw only this single individual. Griscom (1932) 

 gives the extreme dates for the presence of this vireo in Guatemala as 

 October 15 and April 27." 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — North-central Canada to Nicaragua. 



Breeding range. — The solitary or blue-headed vireo breeds north to 

 southern British Columbia (Comox, Puntchesakut Lake, and Six- 

 teen-mile Lake) ; central western xilberta (Grand Prairie and Peace 

 River Landing) ; southwestern Mackenzie (Nahanni Eiver, Simpson, 

 Hay Eiver, and Fort Smith) ; northeastern Alberta (Chippewyan) ; 

 central Saskatchewan (Lake Ile-a-la-Crosse, Emma Lake, and Hudson 

 Bay Junction) ; central Manitoba (Grand Rapids and Knee Lake, 

 probably) ; Ontario (Port Arthur, Moose Factory, Lake Abitibi, 

 Algonquin Park, and Ottawa) ; southern Quebec (Blue Sea Lake, 

 Quebec, Grand Greve, and probably Seven Islands) ; and extreme 

 southwestern Newfoundland (Tompkins). East to southwestern New- 

 foundland (Tompkins;) ; Nova Scotia (Baddeck, Pictou, and Hali- 

 fax) ; Maine (Calais, Ellsworth, and Portland) ; Massachusetts 

 (Boston, Taunton, and New Bedford) ; Connecticut (New Haven) ; 

 northern New Jersey (Lake Mashipacong) ; and south through the Ap- 

 palachian Mountains to northern Georgia (Brasstown Bald, Ogle- 

 thorpe Ridge, and Burnt Mountain) , In comparatively recent years 



