on the Birds of St. Croix. 115 



houses. For about one week at the end of April 1857, they 

 were extremely numerous; but in 1858 the greater part of them 

 left in March, though one was seen May 1st. A male, killed 

 March 17th, 1858, in plumage almost resembled the female. In 

 the same year it was first observed September 6th, on its return 

 from its summer quarters. 



19. Long-billed Greenlet. Vireosylvia altiloqua, Vieill. 

 Ois. de ?Am. Sept. pi. 38. Vireo longirostris, Sw. Faun. Bor.- 

 Am. ii. p. 237; Cassin, 111. N. Am. Birds, i. pi. 37. 



•Extremely local, though common in the southern part of the 

 island, where it breeds ; but whether it is resident all the year 

 may be doubted. The clear whistle of this bird appears to have 

 always been confounded by the inhabitants with that of the 

 Cichlherminia fuscata, which it does somewhat resemble. Mr. 

 Gosse remarks (B. Jam. p. 195) of the species, which he calls 

 V. olivacea, that he can scarcely understand how its note can be 

 written " Whip-tom-kelly ," as it has been by some American orni- 

 thologists ; but it appears much more likely that his " John-to- 

 whit" is not the true V. olivacea, but the present bii'd, first 

 figured byVieillot, and afterwards described as new by Mr. 

 Swainson {locis citatis) : at least, the call-note of the St. Croix 

 species would seem to resemble closely that of the Jamaica bird, 

 whose habits Mr. Gosse so well describes. It is probable, too, 

 that the true V. olivacea is also found in Jamaica in winter ; and 

 thus may be reconciled the otherwise conflicting statements of 

 authors. 



" On June 5th, 1858, I watched a bird of this species to its 

 nest in a Manchioneel, to the leafy part of a bough of which it 

 was suspended. It is a beautiful structure, shaped like an in- 

 verted cone, and composed outwardly of dried blades of grass, 

 dead leaves, and wool, woven round the twigs, to which it was 

 attached, with spiders' webs, lined inside with finer blades of 

 grass, and about three inches and a half in diameter and five in 

 height. The eggs, three in number, are white, with a few black 

 spots of different sizes chiefly dispersed about the larger end. 

 Both nest and eggs call to mind those of the Golden Oriole 

 {Oriolus galbula, L.), which, except in size, they greatly re- 

 semble."--E. N. 



