312 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



189. Vireo philadelphicus (Cass.). 

 Philadelphia Vireo. 



Rare transient visitor. 



On September 7, 1875, I shot a female Philadelphia Vireo' in Cambridge. 

 It was feeding in company with several Red-eyed Vireos in a cluster of large 

 white willows at the eastern end of Fresh Pond. These fine old trees, with the 

 half-ruined icehouses which they shaded, were long since removed to make place 

 for the narrow, grassy park that now e.xtends from Concord Avenue to the 

 Cambridge pumping-station between the Watertown Branch of the Fitchburg 

 Railroad and Lake View Avenue. 



The instance just cited was originally reported in the ' Bulletin of the Nut- 

 tall Ornithological Club.' ^ For nearly twenty years it remained the only one on 

 record for the Cambridge Region, but in 1895 Mr. Walter Faxon announced^ 

 the capture of a second bird which had been killed by a boy, with a catapult, near 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology on September 27, 1894. This specimen * 

 was preserved by Mr. Faxon and, thanks to his kindness, it is now in my collec- 

 tion. 



Until very recently the Philadelphia Vireo had never been found in Mass- 

 achusetts in spring, but in June, 1900, a rumor reached me to the effect that 

 Mr. C. J. Maynard had just seen a number of birds in Waltham. I at once 

 wrote to him on the subject and received the following interesting reply : — 



"Yes, it is quite true that I have seen the Philadelphia Vireo in numbers 

 this season. I found the first on the top of the east peak of Prospect Hill, on 

 the morning of May 10, a cold morning, as you will remember, but in spite of 

 the cold a great day for birds. Warblers were abundant and, being half dead 

 with cold, were very tame. The same was also true of the Philadelphia Vireos. 

 I got within ten feet of the first I saw and was completely satisfied with its 

 identity. I could not have been more certain with the bird in my hand. An 

 hour later I found several more on the corner of Forest and Beaver Streets, 

 Waltham. These also were very tame. The species appears to have lingered, 



1 No. 103, collection of William Brewster. 



2 W. Brewster, Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Ckib, I, 1S76, 19. 

 •' W. Faxon, Auk, XII, 1895, 84. 



■"No. 45,178, collection of William Brewster. 



