308 BULLETIN 197, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



part of April and early May, and the second in June." He says 

 further : 



Nests from which the young had already flown were found early in June, 

 and my experience would certainly prove the later nestings. The first nest 

 with eggs was found June 14, holding on that date four well incubated eggs. It 

 was twenty-five feet from the ground suspended from a fork at the outer end 

 of a limb of a large hemlock close to a stream in a ravine, at the foot of Brass- 

 town Bald. A second nest, found June 19, also held four well incubated eggs 

 and was eighteen feet from the ground suspended from a fork at the outer 

 end of a limb of a beech sapling well up the mountain side. The female was 

 incubating and was remarkably tame, remaining on the nest until the limb was 

 cut off and the nest brought within reach, flying only when stroked on the back. 

 A third nest found June 25 held one fresh egg and was later deserted. It was 

 twelve feet from the ground at the outer end of a limb of an uprooted ash 

 sapling in a ravine probably half way up the mountain. These nests were all 

 alike in construction, being compactly built of grasses, fragments of weed stems 

 and shreds of bark, lined with fine grasses, vine tendrils and fine hemlock twigs, 

 and well covered on the outside with, in two cases, fragments of an old hornet's 

 nest, and invariably numerous green lichens. * * * As confirming my opinion 

 that two broods are raised each year, I might add here the fact that a fourth 

 nest was found July 15, in Fannin County, that held newly hatched young. 



Mr. Brewster (1888) received what was probably the first nest of 

 this subspecies ever reported. It was taken by J. S. Cams on May 27, 

 1887, on Craggy Mountain, Buncombe County, N. C. "It measures 

 externally 3.25 in diameter by 2.10 in depth. In places the rim is 

 nearly an inch in thickness. The exterior is beautifully diversified 

 with white and purplish-brown sheep's wool, grayish lichens, small 

 strips and fragments of decayed wood, and a few spider's cocoons, 

 bound firmly to, or hanging loosely from, the framework proper, 

 which is composed of coarse grass stalks and strips of bark, the latter 

 partly a reddish-colored inner bark, probably from the hemlock, but 

 largely the pale gold, sheeny outer bark of the yellow birch {B. lutea) . 

 The interior cavity is lined with fine bleached grasses and the reddish 

 stems of some species of club moss." 



R. B. McLaughlin (1888), of Statesville, N. C, found two nests of 

 the mountain vireo in some high, dry woods, consisting wholly of 

 pines, such as those in which the pine warbler nests. One nest was in 

 a small, slim pine, and the other was "attached to the limb of a tall, 

 slender pine, about forty feet from the ground and ten feet from the 

 body of the tree." On June 2, while the birds were building the 

 first nest, they were followed by three young of a previous brood, 

 which is further evidence that this vireo raises two broods in a season. 



Eggs. — The mountain vireo lays ordinarily three or four eggs, most 

 often four in a full set, and perhaps rarely five, though I find no 

 record of five. These are similar to those of the northern bluehead, 

 but averaging slightly larger. The ground color is sometimes creamy 

 or pinkish white, and the spots are apt to be in lighter shades of 



