Brewster on the Black-Capped Vireo. 99 



of Mr. Scott's valuable discoveries I would still venture to maintain 

 that all due and proper "care" had been exercised by me when 

 I drew my inference, and that the writer quoted was too hasty in 

 his own conclusions. There has been nothing to show that Mr. 

 Battv's nest was not of a semi-pensile character, and certainly 

 the time has gone by for any one to assume, on the score of a single 

 example, the unvarying character of the nest of any bird. I say 

 single example, for, except that of Mr. Batty, there was no other. 

 Mr. Heushaw's was wholly unidentified, and it is quite likely be- 

 longed to some other bird. Of course Mr. Scott's testimony now 

 settles beyond dispute the pensile character of its nest, but it does 

 not necessarily show either that Mr. Batty was mistaken in his 

 identification, or that Mr. Hensbaw's supposed nest may not have 

 been rightly surmised. We know too little as yet of these nests to 

 lay down any arbitrary rules of generalization. 



Since the above was written, Dr. J. C. Merrill has called my at- 

 tention to the illustration of an egg of R. satrapa by Dr. Baldamus 

 in Cabanis's "Journal" for 1856 (p. 23, PL I, No. 8). Although 

 somewhat rudely represented, the identification is probably correct. 

 In this egg there is more of the buff-colored mai'kings, and much 

 less of the obscure purplish-slate than in my specimen. The 

 ground-color is less concealed, and is represented as a buffy-white. 



Note. — Since this paper was prepared, Mr. Allen has called my attention to 

 the description of the nest of E. satrapa, which I had overlooked, in Minot's 

 "Land and Game Birds of New England" (p. 56). This nest, the writer 

 states, was found in the White Mountains, and " hung four feet above the 

 ground, from a spreading hemlock bough, to the twigs of which it was firmly 

 fastened ; it was globular, with an entrance in the upper part, and was com- 

 posed of moss, ornamented with bits of dead leaves, and lined chiefly with 

 feathers." The italics are my own, to emphasize the pensile character of this 

 nest, the account corresponding so closely to descriptions of the nests of R. 

 cristatus of Europe. 



NOTES UPON THE DISTRIBUTION, HABITS, AND NESTING 

 OF THE BLACK-CAPPED THIEO ( VIREO ATRICAPILLUS). 



BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 



Since the discovery of the species by Dr. G. W. Woodhouse in 

 1851, very little additional information regarding the Black-capped 

 Vireo has been brought to light. The two original specimens, both 



