318 BULLETIN 19 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



woven. These are fibres of grass-like iilants, moss, a few dry leaves, flat papery 

 spiders' nests, with a little cotton or down for the over-binding of the edges. It 

 is lined smoothly with fibres, I know not of what plant, as slender as human 

 hair. Another nest, similarly formed, has the cavity almost filled with a mass 

 of white cotton, which looks as if thrust in by man, but that those filaments of the 

 mass are in contact with the sides, are interwoven with the other materials. As 

 it is picked cotton, it must be a bit stolen from some house or yard, not plucked by 

 the bird from the capsule. 



A nest, reported by Mr. Todd (1916) , was found during the second 

 week in June, on the Isle of Pines, was "placed about fifteen feet from 

 the ground, on a horizontal branch of a hardwood tree." Another 

 nest was found there on April 21, 1909. A set of three eggs in my 

 collection was taken by C. J. Maynard at Nassau, in the Bahamas, 

 on June 24, 1897 ; the nest was placed in a low tree, about 10 feet up, and 

 was composed of grass, leaves, and fragments of palm fronds, lined 

 with rootlets. 



Dean Amadon has sent me the following data on a set of eggs taken 

 by Joseph C. Howell, at Boca Ciega Ba}'', Pinellas County, Fla., on 

 June 19, 1932 : "Eggs two days from hatching. Nest 9 feet up in a red 

 mangrove, suspended from a horizontal limb. The nest tree stood on 

 the edge of a dense clump of red mangroves, which bordered the 

 bayou for miles in both directions ; the nest hung out over the water. 

 The bird did not flush uritil I nearly touched it. Then it returned to 

 within a foot of me, giving a sort of squeal resembling a catbird's 

 'meow.' The other bird also approached to within 6 feet, but did not 

 scold. Later, both became silent and I lost complete track of them. 

 Outside of nest built almost entirely of materials that were grayish 

 white in color, grass blades, plant down, and dead leaves. There were 

 one or two blackish gray grass blades and a spot of yellow plant down. 

 Not very smoothly lined with fine grass stems. Nest not too firmly 

 affixed to limb by plant down and grass stems." 



Eggs. — The black-whiskered vireo usually lays a set of three eggs, 

 but sometimes only two. These are usually somewhat elongated to 

 elliptical-ovate to elliptical-oval. The color is a delicate, pure white, 

 with a pinkish appearance when fresh. They are rather sparingly 

 marked with a few small spots, or minute dots, widely scattered over 

 the Qgg^ of various shades of brown, purplish brown or reddish brown ; 

 sometimes the spots are in shades of faint purple or violet-gray, or in 

 very dark brown or blackish. Not all these colors appear in every egg. 

 The measurements of 43 eggs average 21.0 by 15.1 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 23.5 by 16.3, 22.8 by 16.5, 

 18.8 by 14.2, and 19.7 by 13.5 millimeters. 



Plumages. — I have seen no small young of this species, but Kidgrs'ay 

 (1904) describes the juvenal plumage [of Jamaican vireo], as follows: 

 "Pileum, hindneck, back, scapulars, rump, upper tail-coverts, and 

 lesser wing-coverts plain broccoli brown, inclining to fawn color; 



