BIRDS — LANIIDAE VIEEO FLAVIFRONS. 



341 



The outer primaries are edged externally with grayish white ; the inner and secondaries with 

 yellowish green, (extending fully to the lower wing band,) which gradually changes to broad 

 yellowish white on the innermost quills. The under parts are white, tinged with fulvous, 

 least so on the chin and abdomen. The sides are yellowish olive, lighter than the back, and 

 fading gently into the brownish white under parts ; the under tail coverts have only a trace of 

 greenish. The quills and tail feathers are dark brown ; the outermost of the latter edged ex- 

 ternally with white on half the web. The ring round the eye is much broader above than 

 below ; the lores and feathers at the base of the bill also dull whitish. 



This species bears so close a relationship to Vireo huttoni, Cassin, as to render it quite difficult 

 to distinguish them apart by color alone. The size, however, is considerably greater, the bill 

 much larger, the culmen and commissure much more curved and more equably, the gonys 

 straighter. The most striking difference is in the wing, which is much more pointed ; the 

 primaries . YO of an inch longer than the secondaries, instead of about .45. The spurious jirimary 

 is very slender and short, not one- third the second, instead of large, broad, and nearly half the 

 second. The second quill is about equal to the sixth, instead of not longer than the secondaries. 



The colors are much the same ; the under parts with less olive, none on the breast and under 

 tail coverts, as in huttoni. The ring round the eye has none of the greenish yellow tinge of the 

 latter species. The olive green edgings of the secondaries extend to the lower wing band, 

 instead of ceasing below it, leaving a dusky spot. 



This species is about the size of V. noveboracensis, and has a somewhat similar bill, but 

 larger. The wings are much longer and more pointed, the spurious quill smaller. There is 

 nothing of the sharply defined light greenish yellow of the sides and ophthalmic and frontal 

 region. The outer tail feather is edged with white. 



In external form the relationship is closest to V. soUtarius, which has the wing almost pre- 

 cisely similar. It, however, lacks the pure white of the chin and throat, the clear ash of the 

 top and sides of the head, and the bright, sharply defined light greenish yellow of the sides of 

 body and the under tail coverts. The white bands on the wings, too, are much broader. 



List of specimens. 



VIREO FLAVIFRONS, Vieill. 



Yellow-throated Flycatcher. 



nreojlamfrons, Vieill. Ois. Am. I, 1807, 85 ; pi. liv.— Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 119 : V, 428; pi. 119.— Ib. Syn.— 



Ib. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 141 ; pi. 238. 

 Muscicapa sylvicola, Wils. Am. Oin. II, 1810, 117; pi. vii, f. 3. 



Sp. Ch. — No spurious quill ; the first and fourth equal. From bill to middle of back, sides of head, neck, and fore part of 

 breast olive green ; beneath, from bill to middle of belly, with a ring round the eyes, sulphur yellow. Lores dusky ; rest of 

 under parts white ; of upper, ashy blue, tinged with green. Two white bands on the wing; tertiaries edged with white, 

 other quills with greenish; outer tail feathers edged with yellowish white ; the outer web of first feather entirely of this color, 

 except near the end. Length, nearly 6 inches ; wing, 3.20. 



Hab. — Eastern United States to the Missouri ; south to Central America. 



Second and third quills longest ; first and fourth about equal, and almost ,20 of an inch 

 shorter. 



