BIRDS OF 



Family VIREONID/E. Vireos. 



Genus VIREO Vieillot. 



Subgenus VIREOSYLVIA Bonaparte. 



244. VIREO OLIVACEUS (Linn.). 624. 



Red-eyed Vireo. 



Above olive-green ; crown ash, edged on each side with a blackish line, 

 below this a white superciliary line, below this again a dusky stripe through 

 the eye ; under parts white, faintly shaded with olive along sides, and tinged 

 with olive on under wing and tail-coverts ; wings and tail dusky, edged with 

 olive outside, with whitish inside ; bill dusky, pale below ; feet leaden-olive ; 

 eyes red; no spurious quill. Length, 5f-6^ ; wing, 3J-3J ; tail, 2j-2i; bill, 

 about § ; tarsus, f . 



Hab. Eastern North America, to the Rocky Mountains, north to the 

 Arctic regions. 



Nest, pensile, fastened by the rim to a horizontal fork, 10 to 25 feet from 

 the ground ; a thin light structure, composed of bark strips, pine needles, 

 wasp's nest, paper and fine grass, felted and apparently pasted together. 



Eggs, 3 to 5 ; pure white, sometimes having a rosy blush or a few dark 

 spots toward the larger end. 



A very common summer resident, whose loud, clear notes 

 are heard in the outskirts of the woods at all hours of the day. 

 Even during the sultry month of July, when most other song- 

 sters sing only in the morning or evening, the Red-eye 

 keeps on all day with tireless energy. In Ontario it is the 

 most numerous species of the family, arriving early in May and 

 leaving in September. In the early part of the season its food 

 consists entirely of insects, which it is at all times ready to cap- 

 ture, either on the wing or otherwise. In the fall it partakes of 

 raspberries, the berries of the poke weed and of other wild plants, 

 withthejuiceof whichitsplumageisoftenfound tobestained. It 

 is frequently imposed upon by the Cowbird, whose young ones it 

 rears as tenderly as if they were its own. Large numbers 

 spend the v/inter in the Gulf States, and many go even farther 

 south. 



245. VIREO PIIILADE.LPHTCUS (Cass.). 626. 



Philadelphia Vireo. 



Above dull olive-green, brightening on the rump, fading insensibly into 

 ashy on the crown, which is not bordered with blackish ; a dull white super- 



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