WESTERN WARBLING VIREO 373 



Massachusetts : 11 records, May 20 to June 25 ; 7 records, May 26 

 to June 8. 



New York : 33 records, May 20 to June 25 ; 23 records. May 25 to 

 June 6. 



Washington : 15 records, May 22 to June 29, 10 records, June 15 to 

 22. 



VIREO GILVUS SWAINSONI Baird 



WESTERN WARBLING VIREO 



HABITS 



The western warbling vireo differs from the eastern race by being 

 smaller, with a relatively smaller bill ; "coloration darker, especially 

 the pileum, which is perceptibly (often distinctly) darker than the 

 back; the latter, together with the sides and flanks, usually more 

 strongly olivaceous," according to Ridgway (1904). 



It is a widely distributed and very common bird in all suitable 

 localities in the Western States and southern Canada, from the Great 

 Plains to the Pacific slope. It seems to be equally common in the 

 valleys, in the wooded canyons, or in the mountains, up to 6,500 feet 

 in northern Montana and up to 10,000 feet farther south. It lives 

 wherever it can find deciduous trees and shrubbery, showing a decided 

 preference for cottonwoods and aspens. In most places its haunts 

 are in the wilder, uninhabited regions, along the banks of streams 

 and on the edges of woodlands and clearings. But S. F. Rathbun 

 tells me that near Seattle, Wash., it is also found "about the cities 

 and towns, building its nest in some shade tree along the street." He 

 says that at Lake Crescent, Wash., it is "restricted to, or in the vicinity 

 of, the deciduous growth near the lake, or along its shore. Wherever 

 there was a clearing in which might grow the western maple, here 

 would probably be found a pair of the vireos. In some of the wilder 

 parts of the region, particularly the river valleys that are bordered 

 with a deciduous growth of alders and cottonwood, it will be found 

 very common; and in such localities the flow of its song, mingled with 

 the murmur of the running stream, is most pleasing to hear." 



Russell K. Grater tells me that, in Zion National Park, Utah, it "is 

 a very common summer resident in the broadleaf trees along the can- 

 yon floor and up to elevations around 7,000 feet." Howard L. Cogswell 

 writes to me, from Los Angeles County : "In the breeding season here, 

 the warbling vireo is chiefly a bird of the mountain canyons, or more 

 definitely of the riparian growth (alders, cottonwoods, sycamores, and 

 maples) along the streams from the tree filled gulches in the foothill 

 mesas barely into the lower edge of the pine belt." Dr. Jean M. Lins- 

 dale (1938) says that, in the Toyabe Mountains, in Nevada — 



