BLACK- WHISKERED VIREO 317 



Referring to the Bnliajiias, C. J. Maynard (189G) writes: "It was 

 not, however, until our return to New Providence on May IStli, 1884, 

 that we saw our first specimen of the Bhick- whiskered Vireo. Their 

 loud, peculiar songs could be heard in all directions, not only in the 

 scrub, but also in the gardens and in the trees along the streets of the 

 city of Nassau. Indeed, the first specimen that I saw was perched 

 on a high limb of one of the fine almond trees which grew among 

 many others on a snicill public park, known as the Parade, situated 

 to the eastward of the city." 



Dr. Glover M. Allen's (1905) experience with it in the Bahamas 

 was somewhat similar; he says: "This vireo is a bird of the more 

 open tree growth, particularly in the neighborhood of cultivated 

 lands. We met with it not infrequently on New Providence and 

 Abaco, but saw none on Great Bahama, from which island it has not 

 yet been reported. Its absence there is doubtless due to a lack of suit- 

 able tree growth, at least in the portions hitherto visited. The exten- 

 sive pine forests seem to be wholly avoided by it. * * * "\Ye also 

 found this species on several of the larger cays where there were tall 

 bushes, as at Stranger Cay." 



Nesting. — Mr. Baynard (1914) shows a photograph (pi. 42) of a 

 nest and three eggs of the black-whiskered vireo which he found 

 while paddling along the mangroves on the coast of Pinellas County, 

 Fla., of which he says : "It was not over two feet from my face, yet 

 she stayed on her nest until I put forth my hand to touch her. The 

 nest was empty, but evidently completed. * * * i visited this 

 nest every day, but the bird laid an egg only every other day until 

 she had three, then waited two whole days before beginning incuba- 

 tion. The nest was pensile, like all Vireos' nests, but not nearly so 

 deep as most, and made entirely of seaweed, with a few pieces of pal- 

 metto fiber and one small feather woven in the side; it was lined 

 nicely with fine, dry grass, and one or two pine-needles." 



The construction of the nest described above must have been rather 

 unusual, quite different at least from that of nests of the species else- 

 where. For example, Cassin (1854) quotes P. H. Gosse's description 

 of Jamaica nests, as follows : 



The nest is rather a neat structure, though made of coarse materials. It is a 

 deep cup, about as large as an ordinary tea-cup, narrowed at the mouth, com- 

 posed of dried grass, intermixed with silk-eottou, and sparingly with lichen and 

 spiders' nests, and lined with thatch-threads. It is usually suspended between 

 two twigs, or in the fork of one, the margin being over-woven so as to embrace the 

 twigs. This is very neatly performed. Specimens vary mucli in beauty, — one 

 before me is particularly neat and compact, being almost globular in form, 

 except that about one-fourth of the globe is wanting, as it is a cup. Though 

 the walls are not thick, they are very firm and close, the materials being well 



